‘We are totally out of our depth’: experts say whale stranded in Baltic is beyond saving

Male humpback, which has repeatedly stranded and freed itself in Germany in past month, is to be left in peace to die

When a 10-metre long humpback whale became stranded on a sandbar in the Baltic Sea last month, none of those who went to its rescue could have known how it might turn lives and livelihoods upside down.

About a month after the first sighting of the male whale, near Wismar and Timmendorfer Strand on the north German coast, it has repeatedly stranded and freed itself and is now stranded once more, with rescuers saying it is in the throes of death.