Timmy the humpback whale identified after death near Denmark’s Anholt

A humpback whale found dead off Denmark’s Anholt island has been identified as the same animal that was released in an earlier rescue effort after repeatedly becoming stranded along Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, Danish authorities said. The carcass washed up on Thursday just off Anholt in the Kattegat, the strait between Denmark and Sweden that connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, and Danish officials confirmed it is the whale known as Timmy.

Jane Hansen, head of division at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, said in an emailed statement that the identification is based on information from a tracking device. Danish Nature Agency staff were able, under conditions on Saturday, to locate and retrieve the device still fastened to the whale’s back. Hansen said the position and appearance of the device matched what was previously recorded from the same whale in German waters.

The confirmed death occurred south of the site where the whale had been released on May 2. That operation involved transporting the juvenile humpback toward the North Sea on a special barge after it had spent time repeatedly stranding near Germany’s Baltic coast and suffering worsening conditions. The...