Skeletons of starving whale calf displayed after fatal entanglement in fishing net

The skeleton of a young humpback whale that starved to death after becoming trapped in a fishing net was unveiled Saturday at the Fjord & Belt research centre in Kerteminde, Danish broadcaster DR reports.

Researchers confirmed the calf, which washed ashore near Følle Strand in April 2025, died of starvation after its month-long entanglement off Poland’s coast left it too weak to feed. The whale’s tail fluke matched photo records of the trapped animal, said Peter Teglberg Madsen, a professor of marine biology at Aarhus University.

“We cut open an incredibly thin animal,” Madsen told DR. “At one to two years old, it weighed just 800 kilograms—half the normal weight for its age.”

The 8-metre skeleton, less than half the length of an adult humpback, will be permanently displayed at Fjord & Belt. Its death is the fourth of six recent strandings in Danish and German waters linked to fishing gear, Madsen noted, calling such cases “needless losses.”

While individual deaths remain tragic, he added, the rising number of humpback sightings—including three Danish strandings in four years—reflects a broader recovery. Global populations have rebounded from 5,000 in the 1960s to 150,000 today after commercial whaling bans took effect.

“When humans change behaviour, nature can heal itself,” Madsen said. “Humpbacks in Danish waters nearly every summer for the past decade prove that.”

An estimated 30,000 whales drown annually in fishing nets worldwide, according to researchers.