Packs of chips, plastic bags, all sorts of bags – the autopsy of a beaked whale, dumped on the shore in Mesage, southwestern France, found that the animal had swallowed 16 kilograms of plastic.
The 5.15-meter-long cetacean, which is closer in appearance to dolphins than whales, was found rotting on a beach on Saturday and studied by two experts at the Pelagis Observatory, which specializes in marine conservation.
According to Willie Daben, who is in charge of the organization’s French national network, the presence of so much waste in the animal is due to the fact that the female beaked whale suffered from a parasitic disease that weakened it and he could not dive deep in search of food. That’s why the animal “stood close to the surface and swallowed whatever passed under its nose,” he said.
“Because of her illness, she has turned from an active hunter into a tortoise, which swallows plastics, taking them for jellyfish,” the expert explained.
According to the observatory, the plastic waste caused the animal’s death, probably ten days ago. These plastics stick to the stomach walls and intestines, which blocks the penetration of nutrients into the blood, experts explained.
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