A barge carrying Timmy the humpback whale journeys to the North Sea

A barge carrying a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March has begun its journey toward the North Sea. It reached Danish waters on Wednesday, German authorities said.

Nicknamed Timmy by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. The mammal’s health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters, and unsuccessful efforts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed across the globe.

Rescuers on Tuesday pulled the whale to a flooded barge using straps and a channel previously dredged to create a passage to the vessel, the Germany press agency dpa reported.

The barge is now expected to go around the northern tip of Denmark via the strait of Skagerrak toward the North Sea.

“Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a