Final steps taken before audacious plan to tow whale stranded in Germany to North Sea

Final preparations are reportedly under way for a millionaire funded plan to tow a sickly humpback whale into the North Sea. The 12-tonne whale, nicknamed Timmy, has been stranded on the Baltic Sea coastline for almost a month. A barge resembling a giant steel aquarium will attempt to transport Timmy 400km (248 miles) towards the North Sea, and then hopefully back to the Atlantic Ocean from where it is believed to have arrived. The mission known as Operation Cushion is scheduled to start on Tuesday. Rescue workers said the animal was positioned in the right direction in the water on Sunday. “[It] is interesting, it turned 90 degrees – and in the right direction. It seems to be preparing itself mentally and emotionally for departure,” the state’s environment minister, Till Backhaus, told Bild. Till Backhaus told the press that Timmy seemed to be preparing himself for the towing strategy. Photograph: Frank Molter/AFP/ The newspaper, along with local media outlets, has been running a live blog on the whale’s progress as well as a live stream from where it has been lying in shallow waters for several weeks. First spotted in the Baltic Sea last month, after it had possibly been chasing shoals of herring, it has now been lying in the mud off the island of Poel in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, for more than three weeks. The water contains far too little salt to sustain it. …