Whale to be removed from Danish island after failed German rescue

Danish environment officials are planning to remove the carcass of a humpback whale from the island of Anholt, as concerns are raised of a potential health risk.

The dead whale was discovered last weekend, two weeks after a private bid aimed at rescuing the humpback that spent weeks stranded along Germany's Baltic Sea coast.

"It's around 20-30m (65-100ft) from the beach but it's drifting along the beach," said one woman on Anholt who preferred to remain anonymous.

Denmark's environmental protection agency will also conduct a post mortem examination on the whale, which was released in the North Sea some distance from Anholt.

The agency has urged islanders to keep away from the carcass because of the risk of infection but has not yet detailed when it intends to move the animal.

It gave no update on Wednesday, and no timeline for when or how the whale would be removed. However, it said earlier that work was under way for a solution that would allow for both "a post mortem examination and for valuable scientific samples to be secured for research purposes".

The whale has gained in size in recent days because of a build-up of gas as the carcass decomposes, and some islanders are worried it may explode.

"That's nature. I know some people are worried, but I'm not," said the islander who spoke to the BBC.

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.