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  • 2018-04-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Did a Sperm Whale Die After Swallowing 64 Pounds of Plastic Debris? (en)
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  • In April 2018, authorities completed an autopsy on a dead sperm whale that had washed ashore on the coast of southern Spain a few months before, and found that the marine animal's stomach was filled with more than sixty pounds of plastic and other debris. When news of this disturbing discovery started to make its way around the Internet, many outlets included an arresting image which some readers mistook for a genuine photograph of the deceased animal. Forbes, for instance, featured the following image at the top of their article: The reports of a dead whale with a large amount of debris in its stomach are real; this photograph, however, does not show the deceased animal. This is an art installation that was created by Greenpeace Philippines in May 2017 to underscore the massive problem of plastics pollution in the ocean and calls on the ASEAN to address this looming problem on its shores. This replica of a dead whale is entirely made of plastic debris that was found in the ocean, and is located at the Sea Side Beach Resort in Naic, Cavite: Authorities in Murcia, Spain did release a few photographs of the actual whale that washed ashore in February 2018, as well as images of the 64 pounds of debris that was found in its stomach, which included ropes, plastic bags, nets, and a gas canister: As can be seen in these photographs, the sperm whale was unusually thin. Experts from the El Valle Wildlife Recovery Center explained that the debris blocked the animal's digestive system, causing peritonitis that ultimately led to the animal's death: Although these images may appear shocking to some viewers, this animal was hardly the first to suffer from a similar fate. In 2016, for instance, researches found plastic debris in the stomachs of thirteen sperm whales that died off the cost of Germany. An estimated 150 million tons of plastic are already floating in our world's oceans. A report from the World Economic Forum found that the amount of plastic in the ocean may outweigh fish by 2050: (en)
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