A dead sperm whale was washed off on the shores of Indonesia carrying nearly 13 pounds or 6 kg of plastic waste in its stomach
Indonesia: A 31-foot long sperm whale was found dead, washed up on the shores of Kapota Island in Wakatobi National Park on Monday. In a tweet, World Wide Fund provided a detailed list of items that were present in the mammal’s stomach, mostly consisting of plastic items. The list included 19 pieces of hard plastic, a pair of flip flops, 4 plastic bottles, 25 pieces of plastic bags, pieces of strings and 115 plastic cups.
Dwi Suprapti, marine species conservation coordinator at WWF Indonesia stated that the officials hadn't found out the exact reason of the death yet but the facts seen are ‘truly awful’.
Sperm whales are the largest toothed whales in existence now. The female can grow up to 36 feet while the male can grow up to 56 feet long. They weigh up to 13-14 tons and 35-45 tons respectively.
Earlier this year another sperm whale was found dead in Spain. It was likely killed by 29 kg of plastic that was found in its gut. According to studies, Indonesia is the second largest plastic polluting country after China in the world.
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