Make you Fink on Friday

Just what the hell are we doing to this planet?

We should be nurturing our planet, it’s the only one we’ve got!

Spanish sperm whale death linked to UK supermarket supplier’s plastic

Sperm whale on Spanish southern coast had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste dumped by greenhouses supplying produce to UK

Marine biologists examine a sperm whale on the Spanish coast south of Granada. The animal died after swallowing 17kg of plastic dumped by greenhouses that supply UK supermarkets. Photograph: AFP/Getty

A dead sperm whale that washed up on Spain’s south coast had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste dumped into the sea by farmers tending greenhouses that produce tomatoes and other vegetables for British supermarkets.

Scientists were amazed to find the 4.5 tonne whale had swallowed 59 different bits of plastic – most of it thick transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in southern Almeria and Granada. A clothes hanger, an ice-cream tub and bits of mattress were also found.

The plastic had eventually blocked the animal’s stomach and killed it, according to researchers from the Doñana national park research centre in Andalusia.

Researchers at first found it hard to believe that the 10-metre animal had swallowed the vast amount of plastic they found protruding through a tear in its stomach.

In all the whale’s stomach contained two dozen pieces of transparent plastic, some plastic bags, nine metres of rope, two stretches of hosepipe, two small flower pots and a plastic spray canister.

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Opinion:

With the amount of pollution we have discarded in the oceans, how often is this played out on deserted coastlines that we don’t see or hear about?

How many more animals need to suffer?

When are we going to take responsibility for these tragedies?

When will it be our turn to suffer the hunger pangs because we have destroyed a major food source?

We all sit idly by inured from all this, comfortably safe in our own backyards surrounded by all the mod cons of modern living, while we produce more waste, throw away more plastic and choke more fish and sea life; destroying our chance for survival.