The Cuvier’s beaked whale was found half composed on the coast of Messanges, southwest France, on May 8th. An autopsy carried out by the environmental conservation groups Pelagis Observatory and Itsas Arima came upon 16 kg of plastic in the five-metre long animal - including shopping bags, packets of pasta, and crisp wrappers.
Since such trash can line the whale’s intestines, lead to blockages and prevent nutritional absorption, it was first concluded as the main reason for death. A Pelagis correspondent described their anger at the situation, saying it was “the first time that [he] had seen this in seven years of activity.” Cuvier’s beaked whales usually feed on pelagic squid they find hundreds of metres below the surface. And unlike turtles, they are normally capable of differentiating food from plastic waste. Bioaccumulation is usually a much bigger problem in cetaceans than direct ingestion of plastic trash.
However, the autopsy also found heavy parasitic infestation in the cuvier’s whale’s kidney. The experts assume that this condition might have left the animal unable to hunt for food normally or even dive to their preys’ depth. Instead, it might have fed on whatever was around and floating on the surface. In Itsas Arima’s words: “she backed up on what was around her and came across … our trash”. The plastic then might have worsened the cuvier’s beaked whale’s condition heavily, ultimately leading to an early death.
For more information, find the full coverage here: Dead Whale Found With 16kg of Plastic Bags, Wrappers Inside Stomach (newsweek.com)