Plastic garbage found in beached whale

SONGKHLA: A male short-finned pilot whale that ran aground in Chana district of this southern province on May 28 has died, with a large quantity of plastic trash found in its stomach.

Vets perform an autopsy on a whale which died on Friday in Songkhla province. Inside its belly, 80 pieces of garbage weighing 8kg were found.  Courtesy of Department of Marine and Coastal Resources

The whale was 4.5 metres in length and 2.3m in circumference at its fins, and weighed about 500 kilogrammes when it ran aground at the mouth of Khlong Nathap canal in tambon Nathap on May 28. It was seriously ill.

Officials of the Songkhla-based Marine Resources Research and Development Centre said a team of veterinarians tried unsuccessfully to save the life of the whale for five days. The whale eventually died on June 1.

After the body of the whale was cut open for examination, the veterinarians found 80 pieces of plastic garbage, weighing about 8 kilogrammes altogether, in its stomach. It was believed the plastic garbage was one of the causes of the whale's death, apart from other complications.