Just in case you’d somehow let yourself briefly forget that we, collectively, have fucked the world seemingly beyond repair: the autopsy of a dead pilot whale in southern Thailand has revealed that it died from consuming an extraordinarily large number of plastic bags.
According to the BBC, the whale vomited up five plastic bags as conservationists tried unsuccessfully to save the whale on Friday. The whale had turned up “ailing and unable to swim” on Monday last week in the Na Thap Canal, close to the Malaysian border.
Rescuers tried keeping the whale afloat with boats and covering it with a sunshade, but to no avail.
According to the Thai Marine and Coastal Resources Department, an autopsy revealed that the whale had ingested around 8kg of plastic bags, which were preventing the whale from being able to eat.
The ABC notes that Thailand is one of the world’s largest users of plastic bags and that its government is considering adding a levy on disposable plastic bags.
