FRANKFURT: A humpback whale that had been struggling to survive after being stranded off the coast of Germany was transported by barge to the North Sea off Denmark on Saturday in a last-ditch rescue operation.The whale’s plight, known as “Timmy” in Germany, captured people’s hearts and sparked a media frenzy, said Karin Walter-Mommert, one of the wealthy entrepreneurs who funded the rescue. It left the barge, blew air through the blowholes, and swam away. She said it was now swimming on its own, at least in the right direction for now.Walter-Mommert said the whale had “some minor injuries, but they were superficial.” The entrepreneur, who made his fortune from horse racing, added that it “should now be swimming along the Norwegian coast towards the North Pole”.The whale was first spotted stuck on a sandbank near the city of Lübeck on the German Baltic Sea coast on March 23. It later freed itself and then became stuck several times. Various attempts to save the whales failed and the authorities gave up, prompting Walter-Mommert and another wealthy entrepreneur to step in. They came up with what many thought was a long-term plan: lure the whale into a water-filled hold on a special barge and then tow it back to its natural habitat.Some experts criticize privately funded rescue programs, saying they only make animals suffer more. But organizers said the plan appeared to have succeeded against all odds, with the whales leaving the barge in Wismar Bay on the Baltic Sea coast at around 8.45am.How Timmy transformed To get the whale onto the barge, rescuers attached straps to it and dragged it into a specially dug channel in the sand to allow it to reach the vessel. Rescuers then swam with the animal as it sped into the barge, sparking cheers from the crowd watching from the shore.Entrepreneurs initially tried unsuccessfully to save the whales with inflatable mattresses and pontoons, so the idea of the barge was born. Officials gave the green light to the rescue after veterinarians said the whale was suitable for transport.The saga has attracted non-stop coverage from television channels, online media and social media influencers, but has also sparked angry rows and conspiracy theories about how the whale went off course in the first place.
