Dead Whale found in Scotland full of Plastic Trash

environmentmarine lifemarine conservationoceanplastic pollution

The whale as the tide recedes (c) Collin Adams

Plastic pollution of the seas is increasingly threatening marine mammals A sperm whale did and stranded on the Scottish Isle of Harris. In the intestine of the animal, a 100-pound "plastic garbage ball" was found. According to the BBC, the garbage contained fishing nets, ropes, plastic bags and plastic utensils. The whale carcass was discovered on 18 November 2019. Staff members of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), which investigates the deaths of stranded whales and dolphins, dissected the whale to determine the cause of death. At first they could not find any signs that the garbage had blocked the digestive organs. For Dan Parry, one of the Islanders present at the autopsy, this points out the big problem of marine pollution: "It was really sad, especially when you see how the fishnets and garbage came out of his stomach." Collin Adams of the University of Glasgow, who participated in the dissection of the whale, was dismayed: "Frightening to see how this sticky tangle of polypropylene ropes and fishnets escapes from the stomach of a sperm whale during post-mortem exams," Adams said regarding this Incident. There was initially no evidence that the garbage clogged the digestive organs, but "This amount of plastic in the stomach is still scary. It must have hampered digestion. It really illustrates the dangers of marine pollution to all animals of the seas."

The full contents of the stomach including parts of a gill net and parts of a trawl net and rope some other plasti parts (looked like parts of the interior of a car ??) in total about 0/5 of a cubic meter in volume when crushed into a bolus (as it was in the stomach) (c) Collin Adams