After authorities failed with several rescue attempts, a private initiative backed by millionaires has stepped in to organize a fresh effort to free the whale, despite concerns from environmental organizations and marine wildlife experts that it could cause the animal more pain.
The latest plan envisions using straps to guide the whale, which weighs around 12 tons, through a dredged channel to a transport barge that could tow it towards the North Sea.
Till Backhaus, the environment minister of the north-eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said the regional government has given the green light for the operations.
The private initiative’s vets have confirmed that the whale is in sufficient health to be transported, Backhaus added.
The humpback whale, said to be around 4 to 6 years old, has run aground in shallow water in the Baltic Sea five times.
Source dpa
