New Delhi, May 19 -- A humpback whale found dead this week off a Danish island has been identified as the animal released two weeks ago in a spectacular and contentious rescue effort, after repeatedly becoming stranded off Germany's Baltic Sea coast, authorities said Saturday.

The dead whale was stranded on Thursday just off the small island of Anholt in the Kattegat, the broad strait between Denmark and Sweden that connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea.

The site is south of the location about 70 kilometers (around 45 miles) from Skagen, on the northern tip of Denmark, where the whale that gained the nicknames "Timmy" and "Hope" was released on May 2 after being transported toward the North Sea in a barge.

A tracking device was reco...