Multimillionaires band together in effort to save beached whale in Germany

A group of wealthy Germans have pooled funds in a last-ditch effort to save a stranded humpback whale off the country’s northern coast.

The 12-tonne mammal, which has been nicknamed “Timmy” by several local media outlets, was first spotted in the Baltic Sea near Timmendorfer Strand, far from its natural habitat, in early March and has been stuck in shallow waters ever since.

Since his first sighting, Timmy has been trapped several times in various locations and freed with human assistance, but has become stranded again and is now fighting for his life, rescuers say.

“It is weakened, and its chances of survival are slim,” Sea Shepherd Germany, a marine conservation company, said.

There were plans to try to gently nudge the whale off the seafloor using a tarp and a tugboat, according to BBC reports, but experts have warned this approach could injure the already weakened creature.

A secondary mission, which will use air cushions to float the whale back to the surface so it can be pulled into deeper waters and back towards the Atlantic, is being funded by two multimillionaires who stepped forward to back the 11th-hour rescue mission, The Guardian reported.

One of the donors is Walter Gunz, the founder of an electronics retailer chain, who told the German news agency dpa that if rescuers do not act now, the whale would die. “At least if you try something, you have a chance of saving it,” he said.

German outlets have been streaming live footage of Timmy’s ongoing rescue efforts, including what has been dubbed “Operation Cushion,” which began when a group of rescuers paddled out to the whale to try and remove the silt trapping his flippers. The plan is to then slide inflatable pads under Timmy to lift him onto a tarp attached to a tugboat.

State officials have approved the private initiative to transport the whale back to the North Sea and, possibly, farther to the Atlantic. If everything goes according to plan, the tugboat carrying Timmy will have left the Baltic Sea by Friday.

“He’s not active, and he’s certainly not agile, but he shows that there’s still life in him,” Till Backhaus, the environment minister of the state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania, where Wismar is located, said Wednesday as he announced the new rescue plan. “He’s definitely suffered serious damage, that’s for sure.”

The whale reportedly swam into the Baltic Sea last month in search of food and has several wounds on its back, the British news outlet reported.

Online newspapers have pushed alerts with the smallest developments about Timmy’s health, including updates on its bad skin condition, which is related to the Baltic Sea’s low salt content.

The international environmental group Greenpeace criticized the rescue efforts, saying in a statement, “We are now focusing our efforts on promoting the protection of the oceans, including as a habitat for whales,” before adding that the animal’s chances of survival were extremely low and that the current mission posed a high risk of injury to the mammal.

A 67-year-old woman jumped off a boat over the weekend to get close to the whale before she was stopped, the Associated Press reported.

— With files from the Associated Press