Danish officials to autopsy dead humpback whale Timmy

The carcass of a humpback whale known as Timmy was dragged ashore Saturday on the Danish island of Anholt, where authorities plan a postmortem examination to determine the cause of death. The whale, whose plight captivated public attention for months, was found dead on May 14 after a prolonged and controversial rescue effort.

The whale was first spotted off the German coast on March 3 and became repeatedly stranded in the Baltic Sea, an area far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. It was initially trapped on a sandbank in Lübeck Bay. After several failed attempts to guide it back to open water, a privately funded operation was launched in late April. Two German entrepreneurs financed the effort, estimated to have cost around 1.2 million euros.

The final rescue attempt culminated on May 2, when the whale was transported on a water-filled barge toward the North Sea. The mammal was fitted with a tracking device, which later helped Danish authorities confirm its identity when it was found dead near Anholt on May 15. The whale's death ended months of a rescue effort that many marine experts had criticized, arguing the animal was already too weak to survive and that the...