Man is the only living being on Earth that is created to think and dominate over the other voiceless creatures. In another heart-wrenching incident, a sperm whale was found dead on an Italian beach and is believed to have died from consuming too much plastic, as per environmental advocates.
A local researcher identified as Carmelo Isgro helped conduct a necropsy on the young sperm whale on the beach on Sunday and then posted graphic videos of the procedure on Facebook.
‘They are strong images, but I want everyone to see and understand what we are doing to our sea and its inhabitants’, he wrote.
‘I’m still shocked because her belly was completely full, swollen with plastic’, he told CNN.
The Facebook post’s caption reads ‘seven-year-old whale was so young that its teeth hadn’t come out yet’. “The whale, estimated to be about 6 years old, washed up on the Cefalu beaches in Sicily on Friday,” Greenpeace Italy posted on Facebook.
According to Greenpeace Italia, an investigation is underway to determine whether the plastic found in the whale’s stomach caused its death.
We are turning the surroundings dirty and yet we blame the government or politicians when the problem is actually ‘you’ in the first place. We have already destroyed almost everything and made a complete mess in the oceans. The plastics which we throw now is slowly eliminating marine life.
The plastics which we expel into the oceans is not only a threat to aquatic creatures but for us too. As per a new study by Macquarie University, plastic in our oceans and seas leak maximum toxins into the water, which would prevent the growth of a vital bacteria named Prochlorococcus, as well as restricting its photosynthetic efficiency?
The bacteria in question is responsible for eliminating CO2 and producing about 10 per cent of the oxygen we breathe. But we don’t hesitate to throw plastics and leak toxins into the oceans. This is like indirectly writing a death note for us.
“We found that exposure to chemicals leaching from plastic pollution interfered with the growth, photosynthesis and oxygen production of Prochlorococcus, the ocean’s most abundant photosynthetic bacteria,” lead study author Dr Sasha Tetu stressed the fact in a recent press release.
Prochlorococcus is also a major part of the marine food cycle. “Our data shows that plastic pollution may have widespread ecosystem impacts beyond the known effects on micro-organisms, such as seabirds and turtles,” Tetu said.
“If we truly want to understand the full impact of plastic pollution in the marine environment and find ways to mitigate it, we need to consider its impact on key microbial groups, including photosynthetic microbes.”
World Economic Forum says that if plastic pollution continues at this rate, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.