Dead whale in Compostela Valley found with 40 kg of plastic in stomach

Here’s another sad visual of how harmful plastic pollution can be.

A whale was discovered to have ingested 40 kg of plastic after he died in the shores of Compostela Valley province over the weekend.

This was shared by Davao City-based non-government organization and museum D’ Bone Collector Museum Inc. on Facebook yesterday after its owner marine biologist Darrell Blatchley and Dr. Elaine Vera Belvis of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) conducted a necropsy on the animal.

The juvenile male Cuvier’s beaked whale had 40 kg of plastic bags in its stomach, which included 16 rice sacks, four banana plantation-style bags, and multiple shopping bags, the post stated.

“This whale had the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale. It’s disgusting,” the D’ Bone Collector Museum Inc. added.

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The whale was first discovered in the shores of  Sitio Asinan in Barangay (Village) Cadunan on Saturday morning. The D’ Bone Collector Museum Inc. was notified about it by the BFAR in Region 11 at around 6am but was later told at around 11am that the animal had died.

The NGO went to the site and took the whale back to Davao City for the examination.

“Doing this is not just for our gain but mainly to give education and for people to realize how magnificent these animals are,” it said in another Facebook post.

D’ Bone Collector Museum Inc. said that it will soon release a full list of the plastic items found inside the list. It also urged the government to take action against those who pollute the water.

Dead whales found with plastic in their stomachs have been discovered in the Philippines in the past. In August last year, Blatchley also shared photos of a whale shark that washed ashore in Tagum City, Davao del Norte which died due to garbage ingestion.

Plastic pollution is a real problem in the Philippines, where single-use plastics are very popular. A recent study by the NGO GAIA revealed that 17 billion shopping bags are used in the Philippines every year.