In an unfortunate turn of events, a whale died after eating more than 17 lbs of plastic in in Southern Thailand.
What happened?
The authorities have confirmed that the shortfin male pilot whale died in Southern Thailand after ingesting more than 17 lbs of plastic bags and packaging, a sobering casualty of the waste littering the world’s oceans.
Jatuporn Burutpat, Director-General to Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said, “The whale was spotted by locals on May 28 looking ill and floating abnormally. Government veterinarians were dispatched to care for the whale and were joined later by members of a local whale conservancy group”.
Attempts to rescue fail
The volunteers took desperate attempts to rescue the male pilot whale and nurse it back to health. According to a post put up in Facebook by ThaiWhales, a conservation group, showed volunteers tending to the sick whale, shading the mammal while giving it medicine and fluids.
Volunteers and veterinarians worked for several days to try and save the whale.
However, on June 1, the whale started vomiting pieces of plastic and struggled fiercely to get rid of the plastic from its stomach but he passes away later that afternoon.
A marine veterinarian and volunteers display plastic bags from the stomach of the dead pilot whale. An autopsy carried out by veterinarians removed more than 80 plastic bags from the whale’s stomach.
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Source: CNN
