Stranded humpback whale carcass to be removed and destroyed ahead of tourist season

The rotting carcass of a humpback whale known as Timmy, which washed ashore on the Danish island of Anholt in early May, will be cut up and destroyed after an on-site necropsy, authorities confirmed Saturday.

A recovery vehicle transported from mainland Denmark hauled the 15-tonne whale roughly 70 metres from the shoreline onto the beach, where it will be dissected, said Morten Abildstrøm, a warden with the Danish Nature Agency on Anholt. The operation follows failed attempts to tow the carcass to Grenaa for examination due to adverse weather.

Abildstrøm stressed the urgency of removal, as the whale’s decomposition poses a hazard near one of the island’s most popular family beaches. “It smells terrible already,” he said. “We can’t have 15 tonnes of rotting flesh here—tourist season starts in three to four weeks, and this beach will be full of people.”

The whale, previously the subject of a German-led rescue effort to guide it from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, died after stranding near Anholt. Deterioration has left only its skeleton, blubber, and remaining flesh intact; internal organs have fully decomposed. Veterinarians will conduct a partial necropsy before the remains are transported to a Daka rendering facility in Randers for incineration.

The whale was first spotted off Anholt’s coast in mid-May.