88lbs of plastic bags found in whale’s stomach
Photo of dead whale from D’ Bone Collector Museum’s Facebook page
(CNS): A team of marine researchers in the Philippines found around 40kg, or 88lbs, of plastic bags in the stomach of a Cuvier’s beaked whale that was found on the shores of Sitio Asinan at the weekend. Scientists said that the whale died of starvation and dehydration because of the plastic, in one of the worst cases ever encountered of an animal killed by digesting plastic. American marine biologist Darrel Blatchley, who is based near to where the whale was found, conducted the necropsy and posted his concerns on Facebook.
Blatchley, president and founder of the D’ Bone Collector Museum in Davao City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, said the plastic bags found in the whale’s stomach included 16 rice sacks, four banana plantation style bags and multiple shopping bags.
He said, “This whale had the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale. It’s disgusting. Action must be taken by the government against those who continue to treat the waterways and ocean as dumpsters.”
The museum has recovered 61 whales and dolphins in the past ten years, in partnership with the government’s bureau of fisheries, and found 57 of them have died from ingesting plastic.
Plastic bags and other debris compacts the stomach of whales and other marine creatures that ingest it. The plastic then stops food from getting to their intestines, where it would be digested. In this case the amount of plastic was so bad that the whale’s stomach was starting to digest itself.
While this may be the worst case so far, millions of tonnes of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans every year, resulting in the death of an untold number of sea creatures that consume it. While in this case the whale had digested whole bags, many marine animals are digesting micro plastics, which means the plastic is also entering into the human food chain.
The final cause of death is in for the death of the juvenile male curvier beaked whale we recovered March 16 2019. 40…
Posted by D’ Bone Collector Museum Inc. on Saturday, 16 March 2019
Category: Science & Nature
All the garage on the beaches Of the Eastern side of the island left unnoticed by government . Most of it seems to originate from Haiti.
Same on barkers beach, if you read the bottles they are spanish. Most likely Cuban garbage.
A lot of the more secluded beaches in Little Cayman are completely blanketed in plastic. It’s heartbreaking to see.
Kenya has one of the toughest bans on plastic bags. Why not have that here?
and yet our gov’t still won’t do anything about possibly banning single use plastics! We have to start somewhere and take care of our environment if we want our children and grand children etc to have anything to enjoy!
Sounds like another Filipino littering issue.
Ummh yea, people are pigs. They will continue to use the ocean as a garbage dumpster and there’s nothing that anyone can and will do about it. People are pigs. Once you learn simple thing, everything else comes easy.
so sad. today a post on facebook i will try to share or ask the guys to share of swimming with pilot whales. a rare event in cayman. piere lesiere
look him up on facebook. i hope i got his name right
I bet they still ate it
Not as tasty as the turtle though.