German conservationists make preparations for renewed whale rescue

German conservationists and emergency services are making preparations in case a humpback whale that has twice been marooned on sandbanks in the Baltic Sea should get stuck again, Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack told dpa on Sunday.

The whale is currently in the Bay of Wismar and is swimming free but seen by conservationists as at risk of grounding again. "The whale must be freed quickly if it is to have any chance," Maack said.

He said that conservationists from a range of organizations were planning to use an inflatable dinghy to reach the whale, which is lying a few hundred metres offshore and not far from deeper channels.

Maack noted that the whale was exhausted and that its skin was "extremely damaged."

Till Backhaus, environment minister of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is also to go out to the whale by boat, his ministry told dpa.

The whale garnered massive media attention after it went aground on a sandbank off Germany's Timmendorfer Strand resort near the city of Lübeck early on Monday. It was freed on Thursday. It subsequently went aground in the Bay of Wismar but managed to dislodge itself.