Baltic Sea coast: Tugboat hooks barge with whale | EUROtoday

A tugboat has taken over the barge with the humpback whale stranded on the Baltic Sea coast. Live streams confirmed how the barge full of water with which the whale entered the North Sea to be introduced, was introduced by smaller boats from the Kirchsee on the island of Poel into the Wismar Bay. There the tug “Robin Hood” picked him up.

The marine mammal, which has been caught off Poel since March thirty first, had beforehand been maneuvered to the barge via a specifically dredged channel. According to representatives of the personal rescue operation, the motorless barge with the whale will now be towed by the tug on the best way to the North Sea and accompanied by one other ship.

Helpers pulled the whale to the barge for hours

The switch of the animal to the barge started within the morning and lasted a number of hours. Rescue staff members pulled the whale to the barge utilizing straps. At 2:45 p.m. the animal was lastly within the lowered boat. A web was then put as much as forestall the whale from swimming out once more.

“It’s really a weight off my heart,” mentioned Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) within the port of Kirchdorf. “I was also about to jump into the water to help him the last few meters.” But then he pulled himself collectively. The minister admitted that he cried on the ship from the place he watched the motion.

After the operation, the helpers of the personal rescue initiative within the port hugged one another, and a few shed a tear of reduction after weeks of pressure. When they arrived on the port of Kirchdorf, they have been greeted with cheers and clapping by these current. “We never gave up hope,” mentioned an onlooker on the scene.

The path to the North Sea ought to lead through Skagerrak

The route that the towing group would take with the whale into the North Sea was initially unclear. Previous plans referred to as for a course alongside the Danish coast in direction of Skagerrak. It would even be attainable that the route via the Kiel Canal may initially result in the German Bight.

Veterinarians are mentioned to be accompanying the whale on its multi-day journey in direction of the North Sea.

It can be unclear whether or not the whale will survive the transport and whether or not it may possibly survive within the North Sea or the Atlantic. Scientists had suspected that he repeatedly sought shallow water as a result of he was weak and needed to relaxation.

First sighting of the whale firstly of March

According to the authorities, the humpback whale first appeared close to the coast firstly of March, initially within the harbor of Wismar. On the evening of March twenty third he was stranded on a sandbank off Timmendorfer Strand in Schleswig-Holstein. The animal managed to depart the shallow water through a dug channel. Afterwards, nonetheless, it didn’t set course for the open sea and north, however swam again in direction of Wismar.

Finally it swam into the shallow bay on the island of Poel referred to as Kirchsee. There it ran aground once more, swam free for some time, however was anchored once more on the exit of the bay a number of hours later.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:260428-930-1580/10