Beached Grey Whale In Seattle Had Shocking Amount Of Garbage In Its Stomach

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Biologists who examined a gray whale that died after getting stranded on a West Seattle beach say it had a large amount of garbage in its stomach – ranging from a pair of sweat pants to a golf ball.

The scientists say most of the whale's stomach contents was algae – typical of the bottom-feeding mammals. But they say a surprising amount of human debris was found. Besides the pants and golf ball, there were more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, duct tape and surgical gloves.

The 37-foot whale beached itself last Wednesday.

Comments

[MJinCanada]

02:16 AM on 05/13/2010

Poor thing.

[BobSacomano]

10:09 PM on 05/11/2010

We're eventually going to kill every living thing on this planet - including ourselves.

[HHUA]

11:23 PM on 04/29/2010

We just won't be happy until we have destroyed EVERYTHING including ourselves!

It is absolutely heartbreak­ing to see stories like these and knowing that what we see is only the very TIP of the iceberg... Speaking of which, won't be too many of those left either!

I'm quite sure we're toast. It's no longer a matter of "if"... We are beyond that now

[ProjectGreenBag]

12:51 AM on 04/29/2010

Help Stop Plastic Bags! http://www­.ProjectGr­eenBag.com

[Jared Watts]

09:41 AM on 04/22/2010

Wow, Tiger will really put his balls in anything won't he?

No but seriously this sucks, and we're all gonna die. I hope we invent a Wall-E or something before it's too late!

[terramartom]

09:12 AM on 04/22/2010

Human progress degrades the Planet.
There is a yin and yang to all things, mental, physical, and Spiritual.
Cause and effect rules the Universe, and Humankind needs to rethink what progress has brought to Planet Earth.
The Human species needs to balance or completely redefine needs from wants, greed from having enough, and fictional, make believe religion from factual Science.
No need to keep the Stone age thinking of the past into the journey of the future anymore.
There is no floating, bearded, long haired, toga robed, cloud man in the sky, never was and never will be.
Religion is a curable sickness of the mind!

[DeanWormer]

11:08 PM on 04/21/2010

The sea was angry that day, my friends.
Was that a Titleist?

[BobSacomano]

10:10 PM on 05/11/2010

Giddyup!

[giraf]

06:25 PM on 04/21/2010

Keep plastic out of the eco system.Awa­reness of pollution is great but better still is caring by changing your plastic output, recycling, reusing, recycling and buying repurposed cool things...

http://www­.itsamanma­deworld.co­m/home.htm­l

[Planet Express]

11:23 AM on 04/21/2010

“Time, the dark whale, spouts blithely from his spiracle
A jet of memory that makes glad the sun.”

~William Rose Benet

[mom72]

07:30 AM on 04/21/2010

It's unfortunat­e that with all we know today, we still have people who think the earth is their trash can and have such little concern for all who inhabit it! We still view animals as a subspecies to humans. What they still fail to realize is that if you harm the wildlife on this planet you ultimately harm yourself and your children. Very sad!

[daikon86]

04:09 AM on 04/21/2010

I wonder if we will find similar results with the dead whale pulled out of sf bay.

[rougebaisers]

03:11 AM on 04/21/2010

Humans are a vile species whose future is not worth saving.

[Galong]

04:49 AM on 04/21/2010

Perhaps a tad harsh, but I certainly see merit in your opinion if you look at the earth as a living entity... a Gaia if you will.

I'd like to think that there's hope, but if we can't even agree the the earth is warming, chances are pretty darn slim that we can make any real change in any important realm.

[Yeah-Me]

03:13 PM on 04/21/2010

Tell me.. just what other species violates their environmen­t the way we do?

Personally­, yes... we are in need to a "thining of the herd".

[HHUA]

11:14 PM on 04/29/2010

Agree!

We are the locusts of the planet destroying everything in our path!

[mlaiuppa]

10:01 PM on 04/20/2010

They oceans are becoming our toilets. We need to keep in mind that things live there and stop using it as a garbage dump.

I've been using cloth bags for more than a decade. I brown bag using a lunchbox and I use tupperware and containers and metal utensils rather than consumeabl­es and throw aways. I'm composting and cooking from scratch. I only put the trash out once or twice a month now because I'm just not generating the garbage I used to. More materials can go into the recycling as well.

That poor thing. Once that goes in it never comes out. I wouldn't be surprised if all of those plastic bags contribute­d to the beaching.

[Rosewren]

09:22 PM on 04/20/2010

No wonder these big mammals are becomiing sick and confused and beaching themselves­. So sad. Even our water we drink from the faucet everyday is laced with all kinds of drugs and contaminan­ts that cannot be filtered out and we wonder what is causing autism, maybe it is the water.

[muhair]

09:03 PM on 04/20/2010

Disposable plastics need to be engineered to degrade in salt water. Then you're just left with the countless tons of net lost and abandoned by the fishing fleet each year....

[mlaiuppa]

10:02 PM on 04/20/2010

Maybe we should use less plastic, create less throw away packaging and stop using the ocean as a garbage dump.

[muhair]

10:40 PM on 04/20/2010

Goes without saying....
But with 6B people on the planet and more every day, and with the realities of feeding them, and urbanizati­on, and, inevitably­, the shipping of food and beverage from place of origin to place of sale, there will be plastic containers and wrapping -- even if its use is scaled down to the absolute minimum -- and some of it will escape the waste stream and pollute the oceans. Thus I say these types of plastic need to be rethought and re-enginee­red so we're not killing innocent ocean creatures when it happens.

And given that our garbage is killing marine life in vast numbers, let's not further diminish their chances for survival by eating fish. Even so called "sustainab­le" fish pose practical and ethical issues.