Photo of the case – An Indonesian government boat is moving forward to help officials and environmental activists push and pull a sperm whale stranded to the sea on a beach in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, November 13, 2017.(Photo: HOTLI SIMANJUNTAK, EPA-EFE)

JAKARTA (Indonesia) – A dead whale washed away by the shoreline in eastern Indonesia had in the stomach a large piece of plastic, including goblets and flip-flops, said a senior official on Tuesday. of the park, worrying environmentalists and government officials from one of the largest plastic polluting countries.

Rescuers from Wakatobi National Park found the sperm whale carcass rotten by a 9.5-meter sperm whale on Monday night near the park in southeastern Sulawesi Province, after being informed that villagers had surrounded the dead whale and began to slaughter the dead. carcass, said the head of the park, Heri Santoso.

Santoso said researchers from the WWF Wildlife Protection Group and the Park Conservation Academy had discovered about 5.9 kg of plastic waste in the animal's stomach, containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, 2 flip flops, a nylon bag and over 1000 other matching plastic pieces.

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"Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts we are seeing are really frightful," said Dwi Suprapti, coordinator of marine conservation at WWF Indonesia.

She added that it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the death of the whale because of the animal's advanced state of decomposition.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 260 million people, is the second-largest plastic polluter in the world after China, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. It produces 3.2 million tonnes of poorly managed plastic waste a year, of which 1.29 million tonnes end up in the ocean, the study said.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesian Minister for Maritime Affairs in charge of coordination, said the whale discovery should raise public awareness of the need to reduce the use of plastic and urged the government to take stricter measures to protect the ocean.

"I am so sad to hear that," said Pandjaitan, who recently campaigned for less use of plastic. "It is possible that many other marine animals are also contaminated with plastic waste, which is very dangerous for our lives."

He added that the government was striving to reduce the use of plastic, including urging stores not to provide plastic bags to customers and explaining the problem in schools across the country in order to address the problem. the government goal to reduce the use of plastic by 70% by 2025.

"This great ambition can be achieved if people learn to understand that plastic waste is a common enemy," he told The Associated Press.

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