The sperm whale in Indonesia has 1,000 pieces of plastic in the abdomen

A sperm whale drifted into the Sulawesi coast, in the stomach with flip flops, bottles, bags, 115 plastic cups and 1,000 plastic pieces.

A sperm whale washed up on the west coast of Indonesia on November 20 with a large amount of plastic waste in the abdomen, causing concern among environmentalists and government officials in one of the plastic polluted countries. the world's largest.

Wakatobi National Park's rescue team found a rotting 9.5-meter-long fish in a location near the southeastern national park of Sulawesi, according to the AP. According to Heri Santoso, the director of the garden, they had previously been told that the villagers had surrounded and were beginning to cut the animal.

Santoso said researchers from the World Nature Fund (WWF) and the National Park Conservation Institute found about 5.9 kg of plastic waste in fish belly, including 115 plastic cups, 4 plastic bottles. , 25 ball bags, 2 pairs of flip flops, a nylon sack and over 1,000 plastic fragments of all kinds.

"Although we have not been able to determine the cause of the dead fish, the reality we see is really terrible, " said Dwi Suprapti, marine conservation conservation coordinator at WWF Indonesia.

Determined sperm whale drifting into Sulawesi coast, Indonesia.(Photo: Reuters).

She said it was impossible to determine whether plastic waste caused the death of the animal of the whale, because the decay was already in its final stages.

Indonesia, an island nation of 260 million people, is the world's second-largest plastic pollution country after China, according to a study published in Science in January. The country emits 3.2 million tons of plastic waste. not handled properly every year, of which 1.29 million tons go to the ocean.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia's Minister of Marine Affairs, said the discovery of the death of the sperm whale could help raise public awareness of the need to reduce plastic use. , as well as urging the government to take tougher measures to protect the ocean.

"I am very sad to hear this news," said Pandjaitan, campaigner for reducing plastic use. "Other ocean creatures can also be poisoned by plastic waste and this is very dangerous for our lives."

He said the government is working hard to reduce plastic use, including asking stores not to provide ball bags for guests, teaching about this issue in schools across the country, so that goals can be achieved. reduce plastic use by 70% by 2015.

"This great ambition can be achieved if people understand that plastic waste is a common enemy , " he told the AP.