'It's Disgusting': Whale Dies After Consuming 88 Pounds Of Plastic Pollution

Marine animals are often unable to defend or protect themselves from human pollution, which too often ends up in an ocean, and on Saturday, a juvenile male Cuvier’s beaked whale was found dead in the Philippines after consuming 88 pounds of plastic, reports the New York Times.

Some 12 million tons of plastic, mostly in the form of single-use packaging, are dumped into the world’s oceans each year, creating an ecological nightmare, as many animals believe it is food.

The dead whale was found just moments after environment officials arrived, American marine biologist Darrell Blatchley, who led the operation, and owns D' Bone Collector Museum Inc., wrote on Facebook.

“Finding the whale like this was tragic. It's so sad to see the effect humans are having on sea life” he said via the Daily Mail, adding that this is the most plastic he has ever seen consumed by a whale.

“It's disgusting. Action must be taken by the government against those who continue to treat the waterways and ocean as dumpsters,” he added Sunday.

OneGreenPlanet reports that each year “at least 8.8 million tons of plastics leak into the ocean— the equivalent of dumping the contents of one garbage trucks into the ocean every minute."