Experts discovered a "large plastic bag" inside the stomach of a whale which died in Northumberland - though that's not what killed it.
There was sadness from locals last week as a sperm whale, which had been nicknamed 'Moby' by people following its progress, died after becoming stranded at Sandy Bay Beach, near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea .
The body of the young male whale was removed on Tuesday by Northumberland County Council.
Before removal, experts from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme carried out a necropsy (a post-mortem examination of an animal).
Project manager Rob Deaville told ChronicleLive that while it was clear the animal died because of becoming stuck outside the water, its condition made it almost impossible to accurately determine any other health problems which had contributed to causing the stranding.
He said: "In terms of causality we are not going to get any closer to exactly what it was, because the whale was considerably decomposed by the time we got to it.
"We know it died as a result of live stranding, but in terms why it was there in the first place, that's a difficult question to answer exactly."
Alongside the whale's usual diet of squid beaks, he confirmed his team had found a plastic bag inside its stomach.
He said: "We did find a plastic bag - I don't consider it to be significant to the death, though: because of the way they feed, many sperm whales do have plastic in their stomachs. It's not good, but it isn't a cause of death."
He said that while plastic pollution was not generally a cause of death for the whales, dolphins and porpoises his team examines across the UK, plastic waste does cause problems for marine life worldwide.
"People are increasingly aware of the problem of plastic - it's amazing the way that public opinion has been changed, mostly by that one episode David Attenborough's Blue Planet. But there is further work to be done.
"In the UK it isn't as much of a problem and we don't find plastic in stomach in many cases, but we are aware of other cases in North West Europe and in the Mediterranean."
The beach at Sandy Bay has now been fully reopened by Coastguard teams which had been guarding the area 24 hours a day to prevent "trophy hunters" removing the whale's teeth.
Meanwhile, Moby's teeth and jawbone are .
A spokesperson for Newbiggin Coastguard Rescue thanked local coastguard officers as well as the staff at nearby Sandy Bay Caravan Park for their help.
After witnessing the necropsy, the spokesperson said it was "sad to see firsthand the damage that plastic does.".
