Huge sperm whale found dead in Thailand with plastic pollution in stomach
- 5 years ago
A huge sperm whale was washed up dead in Thailand after swallowing dozens of pieces of plastic.
The whale corpse was found floating in shallow water three miles from the island of Koh Lunta in Krabi, southern Thailand on Tuesday (July 2).
Local fishermen dragged the carcass ashore and alerted environmental officers, who arrived the next morning to establish the cause of death.
The sperm whale was 40-feet-long and weighed at least 26,000 pounds. The team also found it had bleeding in its mouth, which could be a sign of physical injury.
Marine biologists spent more than ten hours performing a necropsy and discovered four plastic bottles, a squid fang, parasites, and pieces of meat inside the whale's stomach.
According to the experts, plastic pollution being swallowed by the whale was one of the factors which caused an inflammation in its stomach contributing to its death.
Somboon Temchuen, the chief of Koh Lanta District, said: ''The sperm whale is a protected marine animal. But over the past 30 years, more than 20 of them have washed up dead in Krabi and Phuket.
''Plastic waste floating in the sea will stuff their belly and eventually kill them. Though the government tried to clean up the ocean, the amount of garbage is increasing and is now threatening to every sea creature.''
The whale corpse was found floating in shallow water three miles from the island of Koh Lunta in Krabi, southern Thailand on Tuesday (July 2).
Local fishermen dragged the carcass ashore and alerted environmental officers, who arrived the next morning to establish the cause of death.
The sperm whale was 40-feet-long and weighed at least 26,000 pounds. The team also found it had bleeding in its mouth, which could be a sign of physical injury.
Marine biologists spent more than ten hours performing a necropsy and discovered four plastic bottles, a squid fang, parasites, and pieces of meat inside the whale's stomach.
According to the experts, plastic pollution being swallowed by the whale was one of the factors which caused an inflammation in its stomach contributing to its death.
Somboon Temchuen, the chief of Koh Lanta District, said: ''The sperm whale is a protected marine animal. But over the past 30 years, more than 20 of them have washed up dead in Krabi and Phuket.
''Plastic waste floating in the sea will stuff their belly and eventually kill them. Though the government tried to clean up the ocean, the amount of garbage is increasing and is now threatening to every sea creature.''