Dead whale had 220 lbs. of trash in its stomach
A sperm whale that died after being stranded on a Scottish island was found to have 220 pounds of trash in its stomach.
The whale was nearly 46 feet long and weighed around 26 tons – 52,000 pounds – according to Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS), a Scottish organization that investigates stranded marine animals.
It washed up on the shore of Seilebost Beach in Scotland’s Isle of Harris, according to Dan Parry.
He lives in Luskentyre, Scotland, and is an administrator of a Facebook page to keep the nearby Luskentyre Beach clean.
Fishing nets, bundles of rope, plastic cups, plastic bags and other garbage were found in the whale’s stomach, according to a necropsy done by SMASS.
“All this material was in a huge ball in the stomach and some of it it looked like it had been there for some time,” they wrote on a Facebook post published Sunday.
They wrote that the whale “wasn’t in particularly poor condition,” and they couldn’t confirm that the garbage contributed to its stranding or starvation.
SMASS wrote that it is unclear what resulted in the excess of debris in the whale’s stomach.
They added that the discovery “serves to demonstrate, yet again, the hazards that marine litter and lost or discarded fishing gear can cause to marine life.”
“The issue of pollution, plastics and ocean debris is a worldwide issue that needs action,” he told USA TODAY in a Facebook message.
SMASS buried the whale at the site.