Citizens were alarmed after finding a dead sperm whale on the coast of Seilebost Beach on the Isle of Harris, Scotland. The dead sperm whale carried in its stomach a 220-pound ball of litter, which consists of fishing nets, plastic cups, and plastic bags.
UNINTENDED STRANDING
According to the experts from the Scottish Marine Animals Stranding Scheme or SMASS, the 45-feet long sperm whale was alive when it reached the shore and died shortly after. The group performed necropsies on the dead sperm whale and found bundles of rope, gloves, packing straps, plastic cups, and some tubing inside -- some of these materials, they say, were there for a long time.
However, the experts say that the digested trash is not the main reason for the sperm whale's death. The dead sperm whale is a juvenile male and was found wrapped in a creel rope that is attached to a buoy. This contraption encircled the dead sperm whale's pectoral fins making its left fin pinned to its body.
The creel rope caused a lot of lacerations in the dead sperm whale's fins. In an official statement, SMASS explains that through the necropsy, they found water in the whale's stomach and lungs, indicating that the whale drowned. The buoy wrapped around the whale was traced to a lobster fishery in Nova Scotia in Canada, 2,500 miles away from where the whale was found. The experts from SMASS are analyzing the possibilities of the cause of death since the whale was in moderately good condition and had been feeding. Lastly, it is known that the dead sperm whale did not show signs of long term debilitation.
On the other hand, the experts say that the wounds that the whale got from the rope were relatively new. The whale's tailstock and fluke also show signs of entanglement, and the experts assumed that the whale underwent two stages of entanglement and are curious as to where the whale first became entangled.
In an article written by the New York Times, Andrew Brownlow, the director of SMASS explained that they were not sure if the presence of trash inside the dead sperm whale's body contributed to its death but they were sure that it might have damaged its digestive process.
WHAT CAUSES WHALE STRANDINGS?
Although the phenomenon of whales (and other Cetaceans) stranding on coastlines are fairly common, scientists can still not figure out its main cause. There have been various reasons: natural causes, which include navigational errors because of the rough weather, old age, swimming, and hunting too close to the shore. There are also human-made causes, and this is what alarms scientists.
The amount of plastic that pollutes the ocean is reaching an all-time high. As a matter of fact, the pollution brought by plastic is such a wide scale that it actually reached the Arctic waters. Unfortunately, these plastics are devoured by marine animals, including whales.
If ingested, the whale may suffer from dehydration and hunger due to the fact that it takes too long for stomach acids to melt the foreign material like what happened to the dead whale found in the Philippines recently.
