Pilot whale found dead in Thailand, after swallowing 80 plastic bags

A pilot whale was found dead in southern Thailand, after consuming 80 plastic bags. According to the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, the pilot whale was found barely alive in a Thai canal, before it vomited five plastic bags.

In a bid to stabilize the illness of whale, a veterinary team tried their best, but failed to save the life of the mammal. The autopsy discovered that 80 plastic bags weighing up to eight kilograms were found in the mammal’s stomach. Many people used buoys to keep the whale afloat and an umbrella to protect it from the sunlight, but ultimately the whale succumbed to its illness.

A marine biologist and a lecturer at Kasetsart University, Thon Thamrongnawasawat said that the whale wasn’t able to eat nutritional food due to the presence of bags in its stomach. It was almost impossible for the whale to eat something, when the bags had already created a huge problem inside the stomach.

Talking to the AFP, Thon said “If you have 80 plastic bags in your stomach, you die.” According to his statement, it wasn’t possible for the mammal to survive after such episode. At least 300 marine animals including pilot whales, sea turtles and dolphins die every year after swallowing plastic in Thai waters. “It’s a huge problem, we use a lot of plastic,” Thon added. Thailand is one of the world’s largest consumers of plastic bags. Each year, these plastic bags are responsible for killing a number of marine creatures living near the country’s popular beaches.

According to a recent study, at least five trillion pieces of trash are present in the world’s oceans. There are 270,000 tons of large and small plastic debris near the surface. Apart from this, the ‘Great Pacific Garbage’ patch alone is believed to contain up to 87,000 tons of plastic.