Pregnant sperm whale with 48lbs of plastic in stomach starved to death after rubbish stopped it swallowing food
Officials said the sperm whale weighed around 14 tons and an autopsy revealed she was pregnant but the baby was not being fed properly due to the plastic
A PREGNANT sperm whale found dead on a holiday beach had an amazing 48lbs of plastic in her stomach, scientists revealed yesterday.
The 24ft long whale was found washed up on an isolated beach last week and was taken away for examination by crane with the help of the local fire brigade.
Officials said it weighed around 14 tons and after an autopsy it was revealed she was pregnant but the baby was not being fed properly due to the plastic.
The whale was found at a private beach near Porto Cervo on the Italian islands of Sardinia and taken to nearby Sassari for examination.
Inside experts found plastic plates, fishing nets, wire filaments, rubbish sacks and a detergent bottle with the brand still legible.
The combined weight of all the plastic was 22kg (48lbs) and the autopsy revealed a six foot whale foetus inside and that only a third of the whale's stomach contents were marine life.
Marine biologist Mattia Leone said: ''It was heartbreaking to see that just a third of the whale's stomach contents were actually squid beaks and other fish that make up part if its usual diet.
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''It couldn't swallow anything else because it stomach was blocked with plastic. Twenty two kilos of plastic is such a large amount and obviously it is sacculated over time but what is important to stress here is that these animals feed at depth and so it would have been eaten near the bottom of the sea.
''That means that down there, there must be an awful lot of rubbish which we have no real idea about. This is obviously all waste materials from passing ships and they have no idea of the damage they are causing. It is a very sad and worrying situation.''
Environmentalists have warned that whales and marine animals will continue to die until the world stops treating the ocean as a rubbish tip.
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