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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kate Connolly in Berlin

‘We are totally out of our depth’: experts say whale stranded in Baltic is beyond saving

A humpback whale stranded in shallow water
The humpback whale first became stranded on a sandbar off Timmendorfer Strand near Wismar and is now in shallow waters off the island of Poel. Photograph: Florian Manz/Greenpeace Germany/EPA

When a 10-metre long humpback whale became stranded on a sandbar in the Baltic Sea last month, none of those who went to its rescue could have known how it might turn lives and livelihoods upside down.

About a month after the first sighting of the male whale, near Wismar and Timmendorfer Strand on the north German coast, it has repeatedly stranded and freed itself and is now stranded once more, with rescuers saying it is in the throes of death.

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