FORT MYERS BEACH, Florida—A rare deep-water dolphin stranded on a Florida beach and later euthanized had a stomach full of trash.
Biologists said they found two plastic bags and a shredded balloon during a necropsy of the young rough-toothed dolphin after it washed ashore in Fort Myers Beach earlier this week.
Animal experts said the rough-toothed dolphin was emaciated and in poor health.
This is heartbreaking. Florida biologists found two plastic bags and a piece of a plastic balloon in the stomach of a stranded female rough tooth dolphin. Our convenience comes at a cost. #PlasticPollution Photo credit: @MyFWC pic.twitter.com/O0o3xjrrK3
— Debbie Levin (@DebbieatEMA) April 26, 2019
Florida Today reports such a young dolphin should have still been with its mother but somehow wound up far from her deep-water home.
Biologists and bystanders worked to help the struggling animal, but wildlife official decided to euthanize the dolphin on-site.
Scientists are still trying to find a cause of death but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the finding highlights the need to reduce single-use plastic and to not release balloons into the environment.
Pregnant Whale Washed Up on Shore Had 48 Pounds of Plastic in Stomach
A pregnant sperm whale found dead on the coast of Italy had 48 pounds (22 kilograms) of plastic in her stomach, researchers said.
The whale was found on a patch of rocky shoreline near Porto Cervo in late March. Firefighters hoisted the whale onto a truck and took it to an institution where a necropsy would be performed.
Researchers from the University of Padua found that the whale was likely unable to nourish her fetus due to the amount of plastic she had swallowed, which included plastic plates, black trash bags, and fishing nets.
“It was dramatic to find the fetus . . . we felt bad already at that point, “ marine biologist Mattia Leone, who was present for the post-mortem exam, told The Telegraph. “But then when we opened the stomach and saw all the plastic we realized, yet again, we were bearing witness to this very worrisome, sad situation.”
Luca Bittau, president of the SeaMe group, said that the unborn baby appeared to have died before its mother washed ashore.
“She was pregnant and had almost certainly aborted before [she] beached,” he told CNN. “The fetus was in an advanced state of composition.”
The whale measured 26 feet (eight meters) in length.
Further tests were planned to pinpoint the cause of death but researchers indicated that plastic most likely played a role.
Questo capodoglio è stato trovato morto a Porto Cervo in Sardegna: nella pancia aveva un feto e 22kg di plastica… C'è…
Posted by Sergio Costa on Sunday, March 31, 2019
Responding to the death, Sergio Costa, Italy’s environment minister, said in a Facebook post: “Are there still people who say these are not important problems? For me they are, and they are priorities.”
“We’ve used the ‘comfort’ of disposable objects in a lighthearted way in the past years and now we are paying the consequences. Indeed the animals, above all, are the ones paying them,” he continued.
NTD news reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
