Dead Sperm whale washed ashore; 6 kg of plastic waste found stuck in its stomach

Updated Dec 14, 2018 | 15:02 IST | Kirti Pandey

Indonesia hopes to reduce marine plastic waste by 70 per cent by 2025 by boosting recycling services, curbing the use of plastic bags, launching cleanup campaigns and raising public awareness.

Plastic waste retrieved from a Sperm whale's stomach (Photo: Twitter)
Plastic waste retrieved from a Sperm whale's stomach. (Representational Picture)  |  Photo Credit: IANS

In a shocking discovery, a Sperm whale was found dead in Indonesia with 6 kg of plastic in its stomach, including 115 cups, 25 bags, flip-flops, and ripped tarpaulins, reports an AFP tweet.

The report published on Yahoo.com says the ghastly discovery has "raised concern among environmentalists and thrown the spotlight on the country's rubbish problem."

The Sperm whale's 31-foot-long carcass was discovered when it washed ashore on Monday in Wakatobi National Park, in Southeast Sulawesi province. It lies on the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. 

 

 

 

Apart from the six kilograms of plastic waste, the unfortunate animal's stomach also contained items that people routinely leave on beachfront, including flip-flops and ripped tarpaulins, the head of Wakatobi tourism, La Ode Saleh Hanan, according to the report. What has angered the conservationists more is the fact that the debris contained "four plastic bottles and 3.26 kilograms of raffia rope, as well as the plastic bags and cups," reports Yahoo.com.

The whale's death was possibly triggered due to this invasive waste plastic in its guts, experts studying marine animals fear. Indonesia's waste management record leaves a lot to be desired. Poor waste-management infrastructure and low levels of awareness amongst people of the nearly 260 million-people nation creates hazardous waste piles in Indonesia. 

 

 

Yahoo report sourced from AFP claims that Indonesia is the world's second-biggest contributor to marine debris after China, and a colossal 1.29 million metric tons is estimated to be produced annually. Indonesian officials had declared a "garbage emergency" last year, but not before a huge pile of rubbish after a six-kilometre-long stretch of coast along the island of Bali was swamped with rubbish.

More than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced each year, reports a study from 2015. 79% of 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic is produced globally and go to landfill sites. Microplastics have entered sea-animals' guts and even into the human food chain. Seabirds are most at risk due to the ingestion of fragments of plastic floating in the ocean. 

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