Stranded sperm whale in the Netherlands found with over 37 lbs of plastic trash in its stomach. Cause of death was intestinal blockage. (source)

Sad alert:

People? Let’s use less plastic (paper or cloth bulk bags, for one), and companies, please use alternatives.  

This is so sad, and unnecessary.

Here’s a few amazing randoms re: sperm whales.

After reading the below, come back here: this might cheer you up: “Father and daughter in a kayak have an amazingly close whale encounter.” (video)

And: Researchers have found Sperm whales that adopted a deformed Dolphin. It may be that both species simply liked the social contact. (news.sciencemag.org)

Or: How can sperm whales survive at depths 12x that of modern nuclear submarines? (self.askscience)

But: this happens frequently. Spanish sperm whale death linked to UK supermarket supplier’s plastic: the whale had swallowed 17kg of plastic waste dumped into the sea by farmers tending greenhouses supplying produce for British supermarkets (guardian.co.uk)

Remember: recycling plastic is just about useless. It’s just moving it around, and consumes a great deal of energy, and it degrades, but never goes away.

Use less plastic.

Via:

“There is no excuse for plastic bags, for example. They are shipped overseas because breaking them down pollutes the air and I guess we feel like pollution in China doesnt effect us (it does)…”

“At least they know the cause of death. It’s very difficult to get necropsy reports from Florida on stranded whales. Still waiting for last week’s results for a sperm whale stranding in Tampa last week. May be a while…if ever…” “researchers were given a gag order not to release necropsy reports during the BP spill investigation as the death tally affected the fines…” “Or seismic/sonic testing…multiple active testing sites in the gulf…also conducted by oil and natural gas companies looking for places to drill…”