The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), an organisation that investigates whale and dolphin mortality, discovered approx. 100 kg of plastics inside the stomach of a dead stranded sperm whale, which included fishing nets, bundlees of rope, plastic cups, plastic bags, plastic gloves, packaging and tubing.
The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) have described the event as "horrific" and have said that the debris seemed to have come from both the land and fishing sectors and could have been ingested anywhere between te Azores and Norway. The group has revealed that by the time they managed to conduct a necropsy having located the whale, it had been deceased over 48 hours which led to it being in a delicate position for examination. It has been said that the animals guts blew out of its side when the examination began.
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