Very upsetting news.
A dead whale off the coast of the Philippines has been found with a large amount of plastic waste found inside his stomach.
According to the New York Times, 88 pounds of plastic was found inside the dead whale’s body when it was uncovered on Friday.
“The plastic in some areas was so compact it was almost becoming calcified, almost like a solid brick. It had been there for so long it had started to compact,” said Darrell Blatchley, owner of the D’Bone Collector Museum in Davao City.
Graphic images were posted to the D’Bone Collector Museum Facebook page, which you can see here.
The Facebook group, which regularly retrieves dead animals and preserves them, described it as “the most plastic” that they had ever seen in a whale.
They added that they found 16 rice sacks, four banana plantation-style bags and multiple shopping bags during the necropsy.
It is said that when whales swallow the plastic, it gives them a sense of fullness without any key nutrients, and thus results in them being far slower and weighed down.
Recently, a number of major companies have seriously reduced the amount of plastic goods that they produce in an attempt to make a positive change for the environment.
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