A necropsy on a young male sperm whale that died after it became beached in Scotland, has revealed the mammal had a “ball of debris” in its stomach weighing around 220 pounds. CNN reports that the whale died at the end of November on the Seilebost beach on the Isle of Harris. The whale was 10 years old, “46 feet long and weighing more than 20 tons.”
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Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) workers discovered the trash, saying it consisted of fishing nets, tubing, and plastic cups, amongst other things. SMASS says that while there was no evidence that the 220-pound garbage ball had blocked the whale’s intestines, it very well could have been a factor in the stress that led to the juvenile’s beaching. The group also posted images to a Facebook page, detailing the dead mammal as well as the grotesque garbage pulled from its stomach.
Local environmentalist Dan Parry wrote about the tragic death of the whale in a Facebook post, and the continuing waste found on the beaches, saying “After seeing the fishing debris pulled from the whale's stomach yesterday, we headed to the beach today to dig out another massive tangle of fishing related rope and net that we had spotted right up at high tide mark. Couldn't believe how much was actually there. I feel much better knowing that this can no longer be washed into the ocean potentially killing more aquatic life.”
Whales have been beaching themselves for decades, but in recent years this disturbing and depressing behavior has increased in areas not used to experiencing them. And every few months beached whales that have necropsies performed on them—since most beached whales are not necessarily opened up and studied—have shown distressing amounts of human-made trash and plastics inside of these ancient animals.
Using the planet as our trashcan has ramifications, from the smallest animal nurseries to the largest mammals on the planet. It seems obvious and yet there is an entire political party willing to override voters’ attempts to ban useless garbage like single-use plastic bags.