Exactly how the whale ended up on an island off Denmark’s East Jutland coast in the Kattegat strait is a mystery. The barge that carried the mammal away from Germany released it into the sea about 70km (45 miles) from the northern tip of Denmark.
The saga has transfixed Germans since early March, and has left islanders on Anholt bemused by the continued interest in the story.
Some German tourists have appeared on the island in recent days to follow latest developments about the whale that some media outlets labelled “Timmy” – named after the sandbank it first became stranded on at Timmendorfer Beach. Others had nicknamed the whale “Hope”.
Two private entrepreneurs had hoped to save the whale, but German experts always warned that it was very weak and at risk of drowning. Even in early April, authorities said they had given up hope of the animal surviving.
It became stranded in Lübeck Bay after apparently becoming entangled in netting. After an initial bid to rescue it there, it swam further east along the Baltic Sea coast and ended up off the island of Poel until it was ushered into a barge in late April and ferried out towards the North Sea.
Initially there was some doubt as to whether the whale found on Anholt was the one that had been released into the sea, but officials said they had found a GPS tracker on the humpback that had been put in place during the rescue bid.