More than 1,000 different kinds of pieces of plastic, including 115 cups, 25 bags, four bottles and two pairs of shoes, have been found inside a dead whale(鲸鱼) in Indonesia, according to local officials.
When the whale was found on the island, it was already decomposing when animal doctors arrived. So they were unable to be sure if the plastic caused its death, said Lukas, the leader of the World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia. The plastic weighed about 6 kilograms, or 13 pounds, he said.
But pictures of the dead whale caused a warm discussion. The people in the country have started to realize that it is because of using too much plastic. So has the government. Indonesia, a nation of about 260 million people was the world's second-biggest producer of plastic waste in 2018, behind only China.
If the whales eat too much plastic, they will have a wrong feeling. They think that they are full. And that will lead them to eat less food that provides all the good things they need, said Nicholas who is the leader of the Ocean Conservancy. Moreover, eating too much plastic can make them reduce their weight, their energy and slow down their swimming. As a result, whales are easier to be hurt by the sharks and many other dangerous animals in the sea.
More than 800 kinds of animals in the sea are affected by about 8.8 million tons of plastic which is thrown away freely in the ocean each year. Plastic can also stop the animals moving freely and sometimes they will cause them to die because they have to be under the water for too long. Some plastic can make a small hole in their stomachs after they eat it.
