The coast wardens of Norway found a whale in its critical health condition. First, they tried to help get back into the sea but soon realized that it was not going to survive.
The researchers after the dissection of the whale were shocked to find 30 plastic bags in its stomach. The whale has clearly consumed large number of plastic bags that are non-biodegradable, hence causing death.
However the doctors say its not a new thing, many other sea animals have been found dead with plastic and other non-biodegradable substance found in the stomach of these sea animals. But the number of plastic bag found in the dead whale’s stomach was really large in quantity.
The Cuvier’s beaked whale was found half-dead, immoveable and in very bad condition at the shallow water off the island of Sotra, the condition of the whale was so bad that the coast wardens had to put it down.
Dr. Terje Lislevand, a zoologist who studied and dissect the whale said, “The whale’s stomach was full of plastic bags and packaging with labels in Danish and English”
The poor whale had a very little blubber and was emaciated suggesting the plastic bags in the stomach lead it to become malnourished and caused its death. Dr. Terje also said the intestines of the whale were blocked up with plastic, causing severe pain in animals and they cannot properly eat, which causes the death.
The Cuvier’s beaked whales are also called Goose-beaked whales and they are widely distributed and frequently seen and found in the sea. Their weight is about 2500 kg and they are about 16 to 23 feet in length. They feed on squids and deep-sea fish.
The increasing number of pollution is a serious threat to the sea creatures and no sea animal is safe from it. So unless we really start doing something about this global issue, it’s not far that the seas will become full of plastics bags and no sea animals.
Plastic in Our Seas is becoming an alarming threat to the sea creatures, according to some experts, there are about 5 trillion pieces of litter floating on our seas that are discarded, thrown-away by us resulting in killing numerous animals every year. It is estimated that there might be more plastic than animals in the oceans by 2050. Researchers also have estimated that the number of plastic in ocean will increase ten-fold by 2020.
Plastic deteriorates very slowly while polluting the oceans for a very long time, then it break downs into fragments called micro-plastic, which are indigestible, causing death for sea creatures.
Every year around 100 billion shopping bags are being used in Europe, with around 10 billion ending up as litter.
