BERLIN (AP) \u2014 A humpback whale found dead this week off a Danish island has been identified as the animal released two weeks ago in a spectacular and contentious rescue effort, after repeatedly becoming stranded off Germany\u2019s Baltic Sea coast, authorities said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The dead whale was stranded on Thursday just off the small island of Anholt in the Kattegat, the broad strait between Denmark and Sweden that connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. <\/p>\n
The site is south of the location about 70 kilometers (around 45 miles) from Skagen, on the northern tip of Denmark, where the whale that gained the nicknames \u201cTimmy\u201d and \u201cHope\u201d<\/a> was released on May 2 after being transported toward the North Sea in a barge<\/a>.<\/p>\n A tracking device was recovered<\/p>\n \u201cIt can now be confirmed that the stranded humpback whale near Anholt is the same whale that was previously stranded in Germany and was the subject of rescue attempts,\u201d Jane Hansen, head of division at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n She added that conditions on Saturday made it possible for a Danish Nature Agency employee to locate and retrieve a tracking device that was still fastened to the whale\u2019s back, and \u201cthe position and appearance of the device confirm that this is the same whale that had previously been observed and handled in German waters.\u201d<\/p>\n The finding brought a sad end to weeks of efforts<\/a> to guide the mammal back to its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n A lengthy drama<\/p>\n The whale was first spotted off the German coast on March 3. It\u2019s not clear why it swam into the Baltic Sea<\/a>, which is far from its habitat and it wasn\u2019t suited to, although some experts said it may have lost its way while swimming after a shoal of herring or during migration.<\/p>\n In late March, it was rescued from shallow water in the German Baltic resort town of Timmendorfer Strand with the help of an excavator<\/a>, but it soon ran into trouble<\/a> again nearby. Local media produced dayslong livestreams, and news sites alerted readers to the smallest developments in the whale\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n