Dead whale washed up ashore in the Philippines with almost 100 pounds of plastic in its stomach
A dead whale with almost 100 pounds of plastic in its stomach washed up ashore in the Philippines, raising concerns from environmental activists. Researchers from D'Bone Collector Museum -- an NGO that retrieves dead animals and preserves them -- recovered the young male curvier beaked whale's corpse in Davao City and said it "had the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale."
The museum workers wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that the whale they found had 88 pounds worth of plastic bags in its stomach, including 16 rice sacks, four banana plantation-style bags and multiple shopping bags. The museum will release a full list of the items found in the whale over the next couple of days.
"It's disgusting," the organization said. "Action must be taken by the government against those who continue to treat the waterways and ocean as dumpsters."
A 2015 report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment said that more than 50 percent of plastic that ends up in our oceans comes from five countries: Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The abundance of plastic trash off the shores of those heavily polluting countries has resulted in the deaths of multiple whales. Last November, a dead whale that washed ashore in Indonesia had a large lump of plastic waste in its stomach, including drinking 115 plastic cups and two flip-flops. In June, almost 20 pounds of plastic bags and other plastic trash were pulled from the stomach of a pilot whale that died in Thailand.
According to the World Economic Forum, plastic could outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 with its current trajectory. 60 Minutes profiled 24 year-old Dutchman named Boyan Slat, who has embarked on a mission to clean up the world's oceans with an innovative device -- 2,000 feet of plastic piping built to fetch and then corral plastic in an area where it can be removed. However, the project has gone through a setback after part of the device broke off.
