Marine biologists on Wednesday performed an autopsy on a short-finned pilot whale that had died on Tuesday and found the cetacean’s stomach filled with plastic bags.
The whale was found stranded in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲) on Friday last week and was sheltered by National Cheng Kung University’s Marine Biology and Cetacean Research Center.
The creature died even though marine biologists transferred it to a pool and tried to save its life for five days.
Scientists at the institute said that they were shocked when they found large quantities of plastic bags and cellophane snack-wrappers in the whale’s stomach, adding that some of the bags were even neatly folded when retrieved.
“It was as if it had swallowed a bagful of household waste. It is really saddening,” one scientist said.
Hopefully, this incident raises people’s awareness of oceanic pollution and inspires them to cultivate a sustainable environment and show more respect to life, the institute said.
Research center director Wang Chien-ping (王建平) said the whale was a calf — weighing just over 100kg — and had only just stopped feeding on its mother’s milk.
Perhaps due to an inability to differentiate between food and trash, it ate whatever it found floating in the ocean, which left its stomach bulging with garbage, he said.
“It shows that the marine environment in the nation’s neighboring waters is appalling, and cetaceans are short of food,” Wang said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS