In April 2018, authorities completed an autopsy on a dead sperm whale that had washed ashore on the coast of southern Spain a few months before, and found that the marine animal's stomach was filled with more than sixty pounds of plastic and other debris.
When news of this disturbing discovery started to make its way around the Internet, many outlets included an arresting image which some readers mistook for a genuine photograph of the deceased animal. Forbes, for instance, featured the following image at the top of their article:
The reports of a dead whale with a large amount of debris in its stomach are real; this photograph, however, does not show the deceased animal. This is an art installation that was created by Greenpeace Philippines in May 2017 to "underscore the massive problem of plastics pollution in the ocean and calls on the ASEAN to address this looming problem on its shores."
This replica of a dead whale is entirely made of plastic debris that was found in the ocean, and is located at the Sea Side Beach Resort in Naic, Cavite:
As groups gathered to haul off the dead whale, they noticed that its entire body was made of plastic wastes found in the ocean. The slimy innards sprawling out of its underbelly was a mix of plastic bags, remains of plastic containers, sachets, bottles and more. Photos of this morose installation spiraled around social media on the day itself, sparking conversations on plastics pollution—a topic far different from the viral oarfish photos in Mindanao that were said to be a sign of the “end of the world”.
THE CASE OF PLASTICS POLLUTION
Just in the first quarter of 2016, already more than 30 dead sperm whales were found washed up in the shores of Europe, with large amounts of plastic waste in their stomachs. Late last year, one of them was found here in Samal, Davao. The reaction of locals was almost baffling as they simply collected the whale’s carcass and transported it to a local museum where they usually display beached sea creatures found in the area.
