Commotion in Italy for the discovery of a dead whale containing 22 kilos of plastic in the interior

"Plastic is one of the worst enemies of marine species", said Monday the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

It was after the last discovery that moved Italy: a huge sperm whale found dead on the coast with more than 22 kilos of plastic inside, including disposable crockery, coarrugados tubes and a bottle of detergent.

The sperm whale – the largest species of toothed whale – was a female found on the coast Porto Cervo, a tourist resort north of the island of Sardinia. In addition to all plastic waste, it also contained a fetus in an advanced state of decomposition, as reported by The New York Times.

Last month, a whale was found dead in the Philippines, with 42 kilos of plastic in its body. Another sperm whale had been discovered in Spain last year with over 30 kilos of plastic garbage.

Although the causes of sperm whale mortality in Italy are investigated, the amount of plastic found in the animal is almost non-existent. eight meters long This is unusual, said WWF scientists.

"The amount of plastic found in the cetacean's digestive tract was virtually intact," they explained.

The European Parliament approved last week the ban on many disposable plastic items such as straws, cutlery and plates. These measures will only come into force in 2021. Although the Italian Minister of the Environment, Sergio Costa, announced the disappearance of a sperm whale, he announced that his country would move things forward and would be the first to apply the ban.

"All countries have an obligation to implement these pollution control policies, not today, but yesterday," Costa said. "Is there anyone else who thinks it's not a major problem?"