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 extinction For weeks now, a humpback whale has been trying to die. Entangled in ropes, it had wandered into the shallow Baltic Sea. 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 Po...

By Philip Hoare and Jeroen Hoekendijk