A mature sperm whale found dead in Taiwan had vast quantities of
plastic bags and fishing nets filling its stomach, highlighting the
devastating toll of marine pollution.
According to the
Association Foreign Press (AFP) news agency, the 15-meter (49-foot) whale was first found stranded near the town of Tongshi on Oct. 15.
Coastguards and scientists returned it to the sea, but three days later, the same whale was found dead around 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.
After conducting an autopsy of the whale, local marine biologists reported that
there was enough plastic bags and fishing nets found in its stomach to fill an excavator bucket.Professor Wang Chien-ping, head of the whale research center at National Cheng-Kung University, told the AFP that while the whale might have died from many causes, such as heart or lung disease or infections, trash was also a culprit.
"The large amount of man-made garbage in the stomach could reduce its appetite and cause malnutrition," he said. "It was likely a critical cause of death."About 80 percent of the sperm whale's diet is giant squid, so this whale might have mistaken plastic bags for food.
He Chih-ying, spokeswoman for The Society of Wilderness conservation group, spoke about how
ocean trash is a major plague to marine life."We frequently heard of marine animals killed after swallowing lots of garbage, but this one was the biggest in size for many years," she told the AFP.
The harmful effects of marine pollution have been choking the entire marine food chain, from plankton to much larger creatures.
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