A young humpback whale has stranded in the Baltic Sea off northern Germany in an incident that is drawing intense concern from marine experts and rescuers. The roughly 10-metre whale was first spotted in the early hours of Monday 23 March near Niendorf, in Lübeck Bay, close to Timmendorfer Strand in Schleswig, Holstein. Rescue efforts continued into Tuesday 24 March, but the whale remained stuck in shallow water as its condition reportedly worsened.
The animal is thought to be the same humpback seen earlier near the port of Wismar, around 140km away, raising hopes that it had been trying to navigate back out before becoming trapped on a sandbank. Part of a fishing net was also removed from its body during rescue attempts.
Humpback whales are only very rarely seen in Baltic waters. They are far more at home in the open Atlantic, and the Baltic’s shallow, semi-enclosed waters are not typical habitat for such a large baleen whale. Recent sightings in places such as the Øresund, Hiddensee and near the German Polish coast have all been treated as unusual events in themselves.
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