"There is no point in carrying an animal that is too weak to swim out into deeper water. It's like throwing a bird that has hit the windscreen into the air and hoping it will fly again. Then the bird dies somewhere else, just not on my doorstep. That's torture for this animal." That's what Lisa Klemens from the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund says in an interview with the leading German daily SZ.
Her colleague, marine biologist Anja Gallus, also takes a critical view of the way the humpback whale, affectionately known to humans and the media as "Timmy", is treated. For the researchers, he has no name: "The whale is a wild animal, not a pet with which you can build up a loving relationship. That doesn't mean we don't have feelings for this animal. We try to help him as best we can. That's why we went into science."
