Overview
- The whale, which reappeared Saturday near the uninhabited island of Walfisch, is stuck again in the Wismar Bay shallows, according to Greenpeace and Mecklenburg‑Western Pomerania’s environment ministry, with police and scientists on scene.
- The same animal had freed itself Friday after crews dug a channel with dredgers off Timmendorfer Strand, and boats from the coast guard and NGOs then tried to keep it in deeper water.
- Experts did not attach a tracking transmitter because the whale’s skin is in poor condition, so teams rely on boat patrols and public sighting reports to follow its movements.
- Authorities and conservation groups pulled back boats Saturday evening to reduce stress, and they plan to let the whale attempt a self‑release overnight, with a gentle nudge into deeper water considered if it remains stuck on Sunday.
- Specialists warn the exhausted humpback is not native to the Baltic and faces hazards such as sandbanks, gillnets and heavy ship traffic, and they say its best chance is to reach the North Sea and then the Atlantic.