Stranded and dying, the German whale is a parable of our troubled relationship with these sea giants

Even as we empathise with these intelligent animals, our relentless push for resources kills them in their thousands, just as whalers once hunted them to the brink of extinctionFor weeks now, a humpback whale has been trying to die. Entangled in ropes, it had . Unable to feed, it is now subject to extreme dehydration, since whales satisfy their thirst through the fish they eat.In such a parlous situation, the whale’s last resort was to strand itself on Poel Island, in the Bay of Wismar. Sadly, it has been a slow death. Beached whales die because they are crushed by their own weight. The German humpback’s agony may have been prolonged because it lay in shallow water and was thus only partly submerged.