A graphic autopsy was recently conducted to reveal the cause of death of a young female whale. It showed devastating results as the belly of the young whale was seem to be filled with what looked like plastic components.
The juvenile Cuvier's beaked whale has died of gastric shock after swallowing more than 88 pounds of plastic. The report was released by the marine biologists of the D'Bone Collector Museum. It is the natural history museum in the City of Davao in the Philippines.
Museum Director, Darrell Blatchley, has pulled sheet after sheet of waste materials made of plastic from the whale's abdomen. It was found of Saturday seemingly floating in the shallow waters. The heap of plastic waste was piled up next to the dead whale and it is just shocking.
The waste included about 16 sacks of rice, four style bags from a banana plantation and many other disposable plastic materials from various grocery stores in the city.
Though several incidents of such have happened all over the world, scientists believe that this was the worst so far. The lining of the whale's stomach was severely damaged by the plastic components and it has led to its death. Marine animals all over the world have been found to be suffering from deaths a lot worse than they used to because of the numerous plastic materials and its components found floating in the ocean.
These marine animals get attracted to the colors that these plastic materials come from. Some of them find it hard to distinguish plastic materials from food components in the ocean. This confusion leads them to believe that the plastic is their food that's why they ingest it.
Blatchley revealed during the interview that his team was able to recover about 57 dolphins and whales that die because of the ingestion of plastic materials along with its other components. Fishing nets and other trash in the ocean are destroying the lives of many of its inhabitants. Over the last decade, the number of marine animals suffering from deformation and worse, deaths, have increased because of continued water pollution.
"It's nothing less than disgusting," Blatchley and his group said. "The government must take action. They must stop those that continue to pollute the ocean. They must put programs on the proper treatment of water waste and reconsider making the ocean its personal dumpster."
The team only hopes that such reports could serve as a wake up call to the governments around the world. The ocean needs to be saved and the only way to get it done is for people to put their practices in proper perspective.
