A stranded whale that died with a stomach full of plastic has a message for us

“Our household rubbish is polluting every single part of our oceans, at every possible depth. The Cuvier’s beaked whale feeds far out to sea at depths of a mile or more – and yet one died with dozens of plastic bags in its stomach. The animal, which stranded near Bergen, Norway, had mistaken so many bags for food that its stomach was stuffed with plastic.”

This section’s working theme is “What You Can Do” not the listed “What You Are Doing”. In keeping with this theme, this week we are discussing plastic garbage and some of its devastating effects on marine life. In particular, on one Cuvier Beaked Whale, which feeds at great depth in the ocean, and while doing so ingested enough plastic bags that it was unable to process food and so starved to death. It uses echolocation to find its food, and plastic bags have a similar sonar signature to its natural food.

Look at the picture of the whale’s stomach contents – none of that plastic should have been, or needed to be, in the ocean. If the readers of this post are aware, and it’s hard to imagine anyone reading it who is not, we must realize that it’s time, beyond time really, to get as much plastic out of our lives as possible. You are all smart people, so why don’t you start? If you want a few tips, follow the links in the article which inspired this post, found in the read more link. Do a few easy things (really, you should be ashamed of yourself if you don’t): refuse all plastic bags, plastic drinking straws, coffee cups, plastic cutlery. You complete the list. Get plastic out of your life starting with the easy stuff.

Enough preaching! Read more . . .