Wake up, mankind! Pregnant whale dies with 23 kilos of plastic in stomach, washes up on Italian beach
Humans add 8 billion kilos of plastic waste to the oceans every year. 40 per cent of plastic produced is packaging, that means used only once and then trashed. And the rate is increasing year on year.
A dead whale washed up on the sandy shores of Italy's Porto Servo (Sardinia) last week. Scientists and veterinarians were shocked to discover that the whale had been pregnant and apart from the baby in its womb, it was carrying nearly 50 pounds of plastic trash in her intestines.
The dead whale had apparently eaten a meal of a squid before its death, but since the plastic filled more than two-thirds of her stomach, the nutrients from that food likely never made it into her bloodstream, writes the National Geographic.
The National Geographic was not the only media outlet that published the news of the shocking and gory death of the sperm whale mom (the mother whale dying also led to the death of its baby). Nat Geo writes that the Mediterranean Sea is choked with plastic waste, and the sperm whale may be the latest casualty of the pollution problem.
Luca Bittau, a marine biologist at SEAME Sardinia, a nonprofit organization that focuses on studying and protecting the cetaceans that live in the region spoke to National Geographic about what they found inside the dead whale.
What did they find in the 23 kilograms of plastic?
- Fishing nets
- Fishing lines
- Plastic bags (some so fresh the barcodes were still readable)
- Plastic pipes
- Some plastic plates used in homes/offices
“I never saw such big quantity of plastic... It was like our usual life was there, but inside this stomach,” the marine biologist told Nat Geo of the devastating realisation.
Plastics, especially the single-use wrapping material, is indistinguishable to the whale from say, a squid. "And once a whale ingests it, that bag is stuck there. Each mistake a feeding whale makes adds to the problem, and slowly its stomach fills with the deadly material," writes Nat Geo.
Nick Mallos, the director of the Trash Free Seas program at the Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit that focuses on ocean protection told Nat Geo: “Plastics are now found everywhere in the world, throughout the entire marine ecosystem and food chain, from seabirds to sea turtles to seals."
Humans add 8 billion kilograms of plastic waste to the oceans every year. 40 per cent of plastic produced is packaging, that means used only once and then trashed. And the rate is increasing year on year. This should shock not just the marine biologists but every human being who can think and act.
How can we contribute to the clean-up of the oceans?
One-by-one, we can all join our efforts and make it happen.
- Take a pledge to reduce the usage of single-use plastic, slowly but definitely. Practice this everyday.
- Carry your own cloth bag for shopping.
- Refuse to use plastic straws, cups, shopping bags.
- Carry your own water bottle, try not to buy water packaged in single-use, discardable bottles. Remember, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute around the world. Don't add to the statistics.