A dead sperm whale was found dead on the Seilebost Beach on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides last Thursday with a hundred kilogram ball of litter in its stomach.

According to the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) who conducted the necropsy on the juvenile sperm whale, the debris came from “both the land and fishing sector” and included plastic, bundles of rope, bags, gloves, packing straps, pieces of net, plastic cups and tubing.

SMASS, an organization that gathers data on stranded marine animals in Scotland, said that there is no evidence linking the waste to the animal’s intestinal blockage, but they believed that the amount of debris could have played a part in its live stranding, CNN reported.

“This amount of plastic in its stomach is nonetheless horrific, must have compromised digestion, and serves to demonstrate, yet again, the hazards that marine litter and lost or discarded fishing gear can cause to marine life,” the organization said. “It is also perhaps a good example that this is a global issue caused by a whole host of human activities.”

According to Sky News, SMASS said that they are investigating why the whale, who was not in a bad condition, ended up ingesting so much pollution and assumed that the animal might have swallowed the items somewhere between Norway and Azores.

SMASS revealed that the whale had been dead for 48 hours when they reached it and most of its side blew out when they carried out the post-mortem investigations.

Members of the coastguard, along with the Western Isles local council assisted SMASS in burying the 20-ton body of the whale on the beach as the corpse was too heavy to be moved.

sperm whale
Officials in Spain found a dead sperm whale with pounds of garbage inside its stomach. A sperm whale is pictured dead after becoming stranded on a beach on February 5, 2016 in Hunstanton, England. Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images

Earlier this May, a young female sperm whale was also found beached on the shores of a beach on Cefalu in Sicily, Italy with its stomach similarly filled with plastic.

Dan Parry, administrator of the Luskentyre Beach-Isle of Harris Facebook page gave a reminder on how human activities damage marine life.

“Debris in our oceans is everyone’s problem—the fishing industry need to do better, but equally, we all need to do more,” he said. “Watching this today, makes me despair for the environment, totally falling apart around us.”