Pregnant Whale Washed Up on Shore Had 48 Pounds of Plastic in Stomach

Pregnant Whale Washed Up on Shore Had 48 Pounds of Plastic in Stomach
A pregnant sperm whale washed ashore on the coast of Italy in late March 2019. (Vigili del Fuoco)

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.”

sperm whale washed ashore
A pregnant sperm whale washed ashore on the coast of Italy in late March 2019. (SeaMe Sardinia)

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…

Sergio Costa 发布于 2019年3月31日周日

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.

Several other pregnant whales that washed ashore in March had plastic in their stomachs.

An autopsy on a whale found dead on a beach in Taiwan revealed a large amount of plastic, including plastic bags, canvas bags, and fishing lines, according to the Ocean Conversation Administration and Taiwan Cetacean Society, which performed the autopsy.

Ko Yung-chuan of the administration told Focus Taiwan that it wasn’t clear if the ingestion of plastic was the direct cause of the whale’s death. He noted that remains of a squid were also found in the stomach, indicating the whale could still feed.

Further tests would help researchers determine the cause of death, he said.

A 15-foot Cuvier’s beaked whale was floating dead near a fishing village in the Philippines in March with 88 pounds (40 kilos) of plastic in its stomach.

American biologist Darrell Blatchley, director of the D’ Bone Collector Museum, which helped conduct a necropsy, said the whale died from starvation.

The animal couldn’t eat because of the plastic in its stomach, he said, adding that it was “the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale.”

“It’s disgusting,” he added. “Action must be taken by the government against those who continue to treat the waterways and ocean as dumpsters.”

The trash included numerous plastic bags, including rice sacks and shopping bags.

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