photo credit: Facebook / ORCA Foundation
Last month we shared the tragic story of a killer whale that beached itself repeatedly and died on the South African coast. Officials and researchers have begun the process of learning why this whale stranded itself and passed away.
The initial examination of the contents of the whale’s stomach is shocking.
Trash.
Used yoghurt containers, old shoe soles and ripped food wrappers were just some of the items found inside the whale.
The Mirror reported that Plett Stranding Network co-ordinator Dr Gwenith Penry wrote on her Facebook page that the horrible discovery inside the 5.7m whale was alongside little actual food – and there’s a chance the human waste could have contributed to her death.
Stomach contents often give a strong indication of an animals state of health, but blood and tissue samples are set to be analyzed for other indicators of the cause of death.
She revealed:
This 5.7m female was starving! She had very little real food in her stomach and the stomach lining was disintegrating.
We found several large pieces of plastic (yoghurt pots, shoe sole, food wrappers), seagrass and a lot of tubed organisms (yet to be identified). All of this suggests that she was trying to feed in the shallow areas of our bay.
It is likely that this individual became ill and too weak to hunt with the rest of her pod so moved inshore and tried to feed on what was available and easy to find.”
This is another tragic example of our trash negatively impacting our oceans and marine life. We all need to do a better job of properly disposing of our trash and keeping it out of the oceans. They’re not landfills.
source: The Mirror