Whale stranded off Germany's coast gets stuck again

A humpback whale that had been stranded for days off Germany’s Baltic coast has become stuck again, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The whale first ran aground early Monday on a sandbank off the Timmendorfer Strand resort near the northern city of Lübeck, drawing widespread media attention.

What else do we know about the stranded whale?

Marine conservation group Sea Shepherd says the mammal is likely a young male on migration and believes it could be the same whale repeatedly sighted in the area earlier this month.

Repeated attempts to free the 12 to 15-meter animal failed until Thursday, when rescuers used a floating excavator to dig a channel around it, allowing the whale to swim off later that night.

Environmental groups and marine specialists had warned the whale might run into trouble again after it was seen moving back toward shallow waters.

Those concerns were confirmed on Saturday, when the animal was spotted stranded on a sandbank in the Bay of Wismar, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Timmendorfer Strand, Greenpeace said.

Authorities believe this may be the same whale that has been repeatedly sighted in the Baltic Sea in recent weeks, including in the port of Wismar, where it was freed from a fishing net.

It is not clear why it keeps getting itself stuck, but experts examining the whale while it was stuck earlier this week warned it might be sick.

Humpback whales are not native to the Baltic Sea. Experts say they often follow fish into the region in search of food and underwater noise can also contribute to navigational problems.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic