German vet, Danish Nature Agency official to inspect dead whale

A representative of the Danish Nature Agency together with a German vet on Saturday planned to inspect the dead whale lying off the island of Anholt to see if the creature had recently been rescued from sandbanks by environmentalists.

Morten Abildstrøm, a ranger with the Naturstyrelsen agency, told dpa that the vet might be able to determine whether the carcass belongs to the same humpback whale that had repeatedly run aground off Germany's Baltic Sea coast.

The vet is part of the private initiative that transported the whale, that was stuck off the island of Poel, by barge towards the North Sea, an operation that many experts had advised against.

The dead whale got stranded on Thursday about 75 metres off the Danish Baltic Sea island of Anholt.

On Friday, a piece of its tail fluke was cut off for analysis to potentially help identify the animal. However, Denmark's Environmental Protection Agency Miljøstyrelsen told the Ritzau news agency that it could take "some time" before the results became available.

Dead whale to remain off the Danish island for now

It was not clear whether a sample of the whale's tissue should also be sent to Germany, Abildstrøm said. He said there were currently no plans to remove the whale carcass.

Because it is far from the beach, it is not bothering anyone, he said, adding that several dozen seagulls are currently feeding on the dead animal.

The humpback whale stranded off the German coast made headlines for weeks. Two weeks after its release, it remained unclear what happened to the animal.

Experts from animal welfare organizations had unanimously assessed the whale's long-term chances of survival as very low.