A whale measuring roughly seven metres in length has been spotted drifting in the Greifswalder Bodden, a lagoon off Germany's Baltic coast, and is believed to be dead. The species has not yet been identified, and an expert from the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund is en route to examine the animal.
The discovery follows multiple sightings of a whale in the Baltic Sea off the German and later Polish coastline in recent days. It remains unclear whether the drifting carcass is the same animal.
The incident echoes an earlier event this year when a humpback whale stranded repeatedly on the German Baltic coast. That animal, nicknamed Timmy, was relocated to the North Sea in a rescue operation but was later found dead near the Danish island of Anholt.