On Saturday morning, roughly 70 kilometers off the Danish coast, a 12-meter humpback whale swam out of a transport barge under his own power and into the North Sea. If all goes well, the open Atlantic is next.

The whale, nicknamed Timmy by German media, had been stranded in the Baltic Sea since March 3 — far from the deep Atlantic waters where humpbacks typically migrate. Over eight weeks, he became repeatedly stuck in shallows near the city of Wismar, his skin deteriorating in the Baltic’s low salinity. Rescuers applied kilos of zinc ointment. His breathing turned irregular. For days he barely moved.

Humpback whales almost never enter the Baltic. Experts speculate Timmy may have chased a herring shoal off course or become disoriented during migration. Whatever the reason, the shallow, brackish sea was the wrong place for a species built for open ocean.

German authorities had given up on rescue in early April, before reversing course under public pressure and approving a privately funded transport plan backed by two entrepreneurs. Not everyone supported the attempt. Marine biologist Fabian Ritter warned that a whale immobilized for weeks may lack the muscle to swim properly, and without support could “sink to the ground and suffocate.” Others argued the transport would only add stress to a dying animal.

For now, Timmy is swimming in the right direction, according to a member of the rescue team cited by AFP. A GPS transmitter will track his movements. Denmark’s environment ministry has already said it will not intervene if he beaches there, calling stranding a “completely natural phenomenon.”

Whether Timmy makes the Atlantic is a question his GPS alone can answer.

Sources