Dead whale washes ashore on Hawaii beach, plastic and nets fill stomach | USA TODAY

University of Hawaii researchers suspect the amount of plastic found in a dead whale's stomach caused a lethal blockage.

A whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year.

The body of the 56-foot long, 120,000-pound animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday.

Kristi West, the director of the University of Hawaii's Health and Stranding Lab, said there were enough foreign objects in the opening of the whale's intestinal tract to block food.

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#Whale #Pollution #Hawaii

[savannahm.laurentian]

Commercial and "recreational" fisherman should be held accountable for retrieving equipment.

[savannahm.laurentian]

How can fisherman be held accountable when cruise ships dump enough for 100s of cities. Disgusting.

[lanamorris]

Don’t people ever learn put the plastic in the bin otherwise this is what you get . Shame on you people for being so lazy . So sorry baby for you to end up like this because of human ignorance Xx❤️

[roxyt]

I doubt it but is there a government organization or agency that is able to help monitor and clean up the oceans to prevent this sort of thing overall? Embarrassed to even ask that, I feel like it should already be known and a thing