A Pilot Whale Has Died in Southern Thailand After Swallowing 17 Pounds of Plastic Waste
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Pilot Whale Has Died in Southern Thailand After Swallowing 17 Pounds of Plastic Waste
By Eli Meixler, Time, June 4 2018
© Thailand's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources/Social Media—Reuters Up to 80 plastic bags extracted from within a whale are seen in Songkhla, Thailand, in this still image from a June 1, 2018 video…
A pilot whale died last week in southern Thailand after eating more than 80 plastic bags and other debris, Agence France-Presse reports.
The distressed whale was found last Monday a canal in southern Thailand near the border with Malaysia, according to officials from Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources. A veterinary team rescued the whale and attempted to “stabilize its illness,” according to AFP, but it died Friday after vomiting five plastic bags. An autopsy exhumed 8 kg (more than 17 lb) of additional plastic rubbish from the whale’s stomach, the department said in a Facebook post.
The department’s chief theorized that the whale had mistaken the plastic bags for food, but after eating them had become “sick and unable to hunt for food,” Reuters reports.
The pilot whale wasn’t the only recent casualty of ocean pollution; in April, a 33-foot sperm whale found dead on a Spanish beach had more than 60 lb of garbage in its digestive system.
Around the world, 8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in oceans every year, comprising 80% of all ocean litter, according to the U.N. Environment Programme. A March study found that a collection of 1.8 trillion pieces of trash in the Pacific Ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch could amount to 16 times more waste than previously thought.
Thailand is one of the largest consumers of plastic bags, which are believed to kill hundreds of marine creatures off its coasts every year. In May, the Thai government said it was considering a introducing a tax on disposable plastic shopping bags or introducing biodegradable alternatives to cut down on plastic waste, according to the Bangkok Post.
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Just a couple of days ago I read an article about the "scientific" slaughter by the Japanese of hundreds of pregnant and undersized whales. "Scientific"? What a fucking joke, and the world lets them get away with it. This is where the "scientific" samples go:
I wonder how much per pound the consumers pay for it. Amazingly, I just watched, shown on Chinese TV, my favourite Star Trek movie - the one about the importing of a pair of whales from the 21st century to the future by Captain Kirk and his crew. Why did they have to do that? Because the whales were exterminated by humans, mostly by the Japanese and the Norwegians. If I didn't dislike the Japanese because of the "Rape of Nanjing" it would be because of their aim to eat the last living whales on the planet.
The Japanese have been using the ''scientific study'' bullshit for decades...It is pure BS.
Some of the photos of miles of garbage floating in the ocean tell you why we are fucking up this planet to our own determent.
There is NO PLANET B folks.
True. Sadly, the right doesn't see it as a problem because it won't be a problem that can't be ignored for another 100 years or so...
I don't think politics matter when it comes to an issue like this. There are issues where I agree with one side, and issues where I agree with the other. I'm not an American and I owe no loyalty to either. On the political identity diagram posted a while ago I was identified as being as close to a centrist as possible, being just a tiny bit inside the line intersection in the Gandhi quadrant.
Great Pacific garbage patch
The Great Pacific garbage patch , also described as the Pacific trash vortex , is a gyre of marine debrisparticles in the central North Pacific Ocean discovered between 1985 and 1988. It is located roughly between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. [1] The collection of plastic, floating trash halfway between Hawaii and California [2] extends over an indeterminate area of widely varying range depending on the degree of plastic concentration used to define the affected area.
The patch is characterized by exceptionally high relative pelagic concentrations of plastic, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. [3] Its low density (4 particles per cubic meter) prevents detection by satellite imagery, or even by casual boaters or divers in the area. It consists primarily of an increase in suspended, often microscopic, particles in the upper water column.
(LINK)
Dangers:
Photodegradation of plastics
The Great Pacific garbage patch has one of the highest levels known of plastic particulates suspended in the upper water column. As a result, it is one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photodegradation in the neustonic layer of water.[29] Unlike organic debris, which biodegrades, the photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining a polymer.
This process continues down to the molecular level.[30] As the plastic flotsamphotodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates in the upper water column. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms that reside near the ocean's surface. In this way, plastic may become concentrated in neuston, thereby entering the food chain.
Some plastics decompose within a year of entering the water, leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A, PCBs, and derivatives of polystyrene.[31]
The linked article and photos will show you what a mess we've made of the South Pacific.
This really makes me sad. To think that if we only took care of the world around us as we look after our own personal success life on Mother Earth may be better.
All of that was in the whale's belly? If that doesn't tell the story of our excessive waste, what we do with it, and how it impacts our world, I don't know what does.
So disturbing on so many levels.
The plastics in our oceans is one of the biggest ecological disasters of our time. If the oceans die, we die. It is just that simple
As for the Japanese, there should be more international pressure to stop their "scientific" studies. There is enough world wide trade to do that.
Here is a link to a article that could really help the worlds ''plastic problem''...
Didn't a young American kid invent or discover something that ate plastic. I think I recently saw an article that said his thing works.
I hadn't heard of it Buzz so I went looking and found this.
I think that's the teen I meant.