Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Is it "Timmy" or not? Whale mystery off Denmark
Is it or isn't it? After a humpback whale stranded in the Baltic Sea dominated the headlines in Germany for weeks, a dead whale has surfaced off the Danish coast almost two weeks after its risky transport to the North Sea. Is it the Baltic Sea whale known as "Timmy"? It is still unclear - and could remain so for a while yet.
16.05.2026, 15:13
SDA
Divers from the Danish nature conservation authority Naturstyrelsen and a German veterinarian took a picture of the dead whale lying off the island of Anholt on Saturday - after initial assessments on Friday - as could be seen on livestream images of the whale. They also partially dived under the animal. It initially remained unclear whether they gained any new insights.
Veterinarian Anne Herrschaft, who actually specializes in horses, is part of the private initiative that transported the whale stranded off the island of Poel to the North Sea by barge - an action that many experts had previously advised against.
Whale presumed dead for some time
According to Danish estimates, the whale that surfaced off Denmark has presumably been dead for some time. Morten Abildstrøm from Naturstyrelsen told the German Press Agency that a piece of its tail fin had been severed. According to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency Miljøstyrelsen, the tissue samples are to be analyzed in Denmark. It could take "some time" before the results are available. The samples could possibly help to identify the animal. Abildstrøm said that it is not yet known whether a piece of tissue from the whale will also be sent to Germany.
A comparison of the pattern on the tail fin could help to identify the whale. Each whale has an individual pattern on its fluke - like a fingerprint. However, the animal's tail fin is underwater and therefore cannot be recognized exactly.
Seagulls peck at the carcass
There are currently no plans to remove the whale carcass, said Abildstrøm from the nature conservation authority. As it is far away from the beach, it is not disturbing anyone, he said, adding that several dozen seagulls are currently feeding on the dead animal. Numerous seagulls have been flocking around the animal since the stranding on Thursday, pecking at the carcass lying about 75 meters off the beach.
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency urged people on the island to stay away from the whale carcass, wrote the newspaper "Ekstra Bladet". Any pathogens could be transmitted from the dead animal to humans. There is also a risk that the whale could explode due to putrefactive gases.
Weeks of hype surrounding the whale
The humpback whale stranded off the German coast made headlines for weeks. The whale, which had been stranded several times on the coast of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, had been brought into the open sea by the private initiative with the help of a barge and released into the Skagerrak about 70 kilometers from Skagen on 2 May.
After its release, it remained unclear what happened to the whale. Even around two weeks after the release, there is still no known or reliable data on where the animal is. Experts from animal welfare organizations had unanimously estimated the whale's long-term chances of survival as very low.
If a GPS transmitter is found on the whale, this could be an important sign that it is "Timmy". According to the private initiative, such a transmitter was attached to the whale's dorsal fin before it was released, which was supposed to provide continuous location data. Whether this actually happened could not be verified by independent sources. According to Danish sources, no transmitter was found on the carcass discovered off Anholt. However, Abildstrøm also explained that a transmitter allegedly attached to the dorsal fin could not have been detected because the dead whale was initially lying on its side and then on its back.
Researcher speaks of "cruelty to animals"
Whale researcher Peter Teglberg Madsen from Aarhus University told the Danish broadcaster TV2 that it was necessary to wait for the tissue samples to be analyzed, but that it was "overwhelmingly likely" that it was the whale that had previously beached itself in the Baltic Sea.
"It was pushed into the North Sea, sick and weakened, and then it probably drifted to Anholt," said Teglberg Madsen. "I think what happened there was cruelty to animals. It was a sick and dying animal," said Teglberg Madsen. He said the whale should have been left alone "instead of being dragged to the North Sea for two days", where it probably drowned.
