Overview
- After leaving the Wismar Bay on Tuesday evening, the barge with the whale under tow was tracked near Fehmarn early Wednesday and moved slowly toward Denmark with veterinarians on board.
- Helpers spent hours using harnesses and a dredged 100‑meter channel to guide the roughly 12‑meter, 12‑ton whale into a water‑filled barge, with the last meters covered under the whale’s own power and a net deployed to keep it inside.
- Plans call for the tug Robin Hood to pull the barge over several days around Denmark’s tip to waters off Skagen before a release into the North Sea.
- Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern officials conditionally cleared the privately financed attempt backed by entrepreneurs Karin Walter‑Mommert and Walter Gunz, while Environment Minister Till Backhaus praised the team and said veterinarians deemed the animal transportable.
- Marine scientists and conservation groups warned of severe stress, injury and low survival odds, questioned whether the weakened whale can swim, dive and feed after release, and noted a vague ‘Plan B’ for rehabilitation with no confirmed facility able to take an adult humpback; organizers also limited public access to tracking data, and the minister said he will seek policy guidance at a May environment ministers’ meeting.