After a 'week-long ordeal, which has put its survival into doubt, a young humpback named Timmy was struggling to find its way?out of shallow bays near the Baltic coast in Germany on Sunday morning.

Timmy's plight, which is estimated to be 12-15 metres long, illustrates the difficulty in releasing such large creatures. Rescuers used dredging gear and boats to help guide the whale on a long journey to the Atlantic.

Rescuers hope that the whale can now 'free itself' after days of efforts.

The whale is weak. "We're hopeful that it will survive," Daniela von Schaper said, a Greenpeace marine expert.

The whale's gender is still unknown. It was named Timmendorfer Strand after the beach, which has white sand, on Germany’s Baltic coast, where it was first seen on a sandbank nearby on Monday.

Greenpeace, along with its partners, documented an animal suffering from severe stress and irritation of the skin with fishing gear in its mouth.

The whale was able to 'free itself? twice before it ran into trouble again.

The humpback whale is not indigenous to the Baltic Sea. Von Schaper says that large 'whales' are seen in the Baltic Sea every couple of years.

Conservationists believe that disrupted migration paths and human interference play a role in the stranding of whales around the world. However, animals can also 'lose their way when searching for food.

Von Schaper stated that "some of them manage to find their way back out, but others do not."

(source: Reuters)