A humpback whale found dead this week off a Danish island has been identified as the same animal that was released about two weeks earlier during a widely publicized rescue attempt, Danish authorities said. The whale had repeatedly become stranded along Germany’s Baltic Sea coast before the later rescue. The rescue effort involved moving the whale and then releasing it, an operation described by several outlets as spectacular and also contentious. After the release, the whale later ended up near Denmark, where it was found dead. Authorities do not report new causes of death in the accounts provided, but they link the dead whale to the previously handled animal. Multiple outlets echo the same sequence: repeated stranding in Germany’s Baltic region, a high-profile rescue and release event roughly two weeks before, and the subsequent discovery of the whale’s body off Denmark. The reports are consistent in naming the location as off a Danish island and in characterizing the rescue as controversial, though they do not provide additional differing details beyond the shared timeline and identification.