A white beluga whale has been spotted in the narrow straits of the Flensburg Firth, the waterway that separates Germany from Denmark near the northern German city of Flensburg.
According to the local Nordschleswiger newspaper, a Danish publication serving Denmark’s German-speaking minority, the whale was first seen near Arosund last month and has since moved south past the island of Als into the firth, known as the Flensburger Förde in German or Flensborg Fjord in Danish.
Beluga whales are social, often travelling in groups, and communicate with whistles, chirps and clicks — earning them the nickname “canaries of the sea.”
They feed on herring, salmon, squid and crustaceans, can grow up to six metres long and weigh more than a ton.
Belugas are normally found in sub‑arctic regions like Greenland and Norway, but sightings in southern Denmark are not unprecedented, with records from 1903, 1964, the 1980s and 2012.
Danish whale researcher Carl Christian Kinze said belugas favour coastal areas and that this individual will likely make its own way back to more open waters.
What happened to ‘Timmy’ the humpback whale?
The same cannot be said for “Timmy” the humpback whale, which has repeatedly stranded, freed itself and stranded again off Germany’s northeastern coast over the past month. After capturing the nation’s attention, Timmy is now to be left to die in peace.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher