A BELLY FULL OF PLASTIC
Post-mortem on baby sperm whale found dead on Welsh beach reveals waste shock
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BABY sperm whale found dead on a Welsh beach had plastic sheeting and ropes in its stomach, according to a post-mortem examination.
The 22ft-long sea creature washed up at Hell’s Mouth, Gwynedd, last Tuesday.
The male calf was found to be underweight and malnourished when examined by experts, who were confused about how it had ended up in the UK’s shallower waters.
It is unusual for the massive deepsea creatures to venture to the Welsh coast, and this is the only recorded beaching of a sperm whale in Wales since records began in 1913.
Sperm whales can dive to deeper than 3,000 feet and grow to almost 70ft long. They can’t feed in shallow waters because they live on a diet of giant squid, which are usually found at depths of between 1,000 and 2,000 feet.
“A large piece of blue plastic sheeting was found in the stomach, and a relatively large mass of ropes, fragments of monofilament line and other plastic fragments,” said Rob Deaville, project manager for the Zoological Society of London’s cetacean strandings investigation programme.
“It is not possible to accurately assess whether the ingestion of debris was a result of the whale’s presence in the abnormal habitat of shallow waters around the UK, or if other underlying issues may have played a role in their ingestion.”
The post-mortem examination also showed there was no evidence that the whale had fed recently, but squid beaks found in the stomach showed it had been weaned and had been feeding normally in the past.
Investigators are now waiting on bacteriology tests to conclude their findings, with further updates to be provided when available.