The body of a stranded sperm whale which died on a beach in Northumberland last week had plastic inside it, scientists say.
Locals nicknamed the 44-foot (13.3m) animal Moby after it washed up, but it died on Friday night.
Its body was removed from the beach on Tuesday by Northumberland County Council and a post-mortem exam revealed plastic inside its stomach.
This was not what killed the whale, the experts said, but it is yet another example of how a scourge of plastic is infiltrating and harming our environment.
A costguard officer stood by the dead whale on the beach at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on Saturday. The animal was said to be thousands of miles away from its natural feeding ground, but experts don’t know why
Moby hit headlines when it became stranded at Sandy Bay beach near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea last week.
It died overnight on Friday, October 11, after first being spotted about 600 yards (550m) out to sea on Thursday.
Sperm whales are not usually found in the North Sea and experts said when Moby was found that it was thousands of miles from its feeding ground, for some reason.
They added that sightings of sperm whales in the waters around the UK are ‘very rare’.
As a result, they decided not to try and put it back in the sea because there would be nothing for it to eat – their diet consists mostly of giant squid.
Before its body was removed, experts from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme carried out a necropsy – a post-mortem examination of an animal.
Project manager Rob Deaville told ChronicleLive that while it was clear the animal died because of becoming stuck outside the water, its condition made it almost impossible to accurately determine any other health problems which had contributed to causing the stranding.
He said: ‘In terms of causality we are not going to get any closer to exactly what it was, because the whale was considerably decomposed by the time we got to it.
‘We know it died as a result of live stranding, but in terms why it was there in the first place, that’s a difficult question to answer exactly.’
Alongside the whale’s usual diet of squid beaks, he confirmed his team had found a plastic bag inside its stomach.
He said: ‘We did find a plastic bag – I don’t consider it to be significant to the death, though.
‘Because of the way they feed, many sperm whales do have plastic in their stomachs. It’s not good, but it isn’t a cause of death.’
He said that while plastic pollution was not generally a cause of death for the whales, dolphins and porpoises his team examines across the UK, plastic waste does cause problems for marine life worldwide.
The body of the sperm whale washed up on a beach at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland
Sperm whales are not normally found in British coastal waters as they are unable to feed due to the lack of their main food source, giant squid, which are normally found deep in the ocean
Members of the public view the body of a sperm whale which washed up at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland on Friday. Experts decided against trying to rescue the animal
‘People are increasingly aware of the problem of plastic – it’s amazing the way that public opinion has been changed, mostly by that one episode David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. But there is further work to be done.
‘In the UK it isn’t as much of a problem and we don’t find plastic in stomach in many cases, but we are aware of other cases in North West Europe and in the Mediterranean.’
The beach at Sandy Bay has now been fully reopened by Coastguard teams which had been guarding the area 24 hours a day to prevent ‘trophy hunters’ removing the whale’s teeth.
Meanwhile, Moby’s teeth and jawbone are set to be delivered to the Great North Museum: Hancock.
A spokesperson for Newbiggin Coastguard Rescue thanked local coastguard officers as well as the staff at nearby Sandy Bay Caravan Park for their help.
After witnessing the necropsy, the spokesperson said it was ‘sad to see firsthand the damage that plastic does.’.
