64 pounds of trash kills sperm whale in Spain, scientists say

A young sperm whale that washed ashore on the southeast coast of Spain in February most likely died after being unable to digest more than 60 pounds of plastic trash, fish netting and garbage bags in its stomach and intestines, scientists said this month.

The 33-foot-long whale was swept onto a rocky beach in Cape Palos, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea, on Feb. 27. It was not yet fully grown but weighed just 13,000 pounds, an unusually scrawny size for a whale that can reach 120,000 pounds as an adult.

When scientists performed a necropsy, the reason became clear: The whale had 64 pounds of trash — plastic bags, ropes, netting and even a plastic drum — clogging its intestines and stomach. It could not process the garbage or pass it through its digestive system, causing severe inflammation as it withered away, officials in the region of Murcia said.

“The presence of plastics in the seas and oceans is one of the greatest threats to the conservation of wildlife throughout the world,” Consuelo Rosauro Meseguer, the region’s environmental director, said in a statement.

Sperm whales, which are among the largest of their species, can dive thousands of feet deep into the darkest regions of the ocean to hunt for squid. But in between those deep dives, they often hang around the surface, making them susceptible to ingesting floating debris that might be mistaken for food.

Pollution in the ocean has disastrous effects, particularly for wildlife. Because of the ocean’s currents, some buoyant debris eventually settles in islands of trash that float above or just below the surface. One such area between California and Hawaii, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is now estimated to contain at least 87,000 tons of plastic.

As the amount of plastic in the ocean grows every year, some scientists believe that debris might kill more animals than the effects of climate change. When two whales came ashore in Northern California in 2008, scientists found they had ingested bags and netting probably discarded by fishermen. One whale’s stomach had ruptured, and the other one, which had consumed more than 160 pounds of trash, is likely to have starved to death as the garbage obstructed its stomach.

Authorities in Murcia announced the findings of the necropsy, which was performed by the El Valle Wildlife Recovery Center, as part of an awareness campaign about plastic and garbage in the coastal region’s waters. Volunteers are cleaning up beaches and are asking people to be mindful when they discard plastic.