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I had just sat down at the living room and turned on the tv and skynews was on. A documentary on plastic waste just started so I quickly set it to record. That was close to 2 months ago and I only decided to watch it today.
I鈥檝e found that I need to clear my mind to watch documentaries that would affect me, especially those that involve animals. And I cannot watch too many at one go. The first time I discovered these documentaries I watched them one after another. There was just so much information to process and I was mentally and emotionally drained.
This documentary is called A Plastic Whale. The title speaks for itself and breaks my heart. In May last year a whale had swum to a small community called Sotra in Western Norway.
The residents tried to steer it back to the ocean but it kept coming back.
It didn鈥檛 move much and they could see that it was not well so they decided to shoot it to end it鈥檚 misery.
Scientists came in to study the whale. It was approximately 6 metres long and weighed a little less than 2 tonnes when it should have weighed 4 tonnes. When they cut open it鈥檚 stomach to learn more about it鈥檚 diet they were shocked to find it full of all kinds of plastic packaging. Thirty pieces in total!
Not far off a dead porpoise was found in the UK. And they too discovered plastic bags, packaging and wrappers in it鈥檚 stomach! 4 kilograms of it!
Pulling plastic out of it鈥檚 intestine
Can you imagine how many more have died of the same cause? These creatures swim in the deep and have shown us how far our plastic wastes have gone 馃槩
And in the town of Bergen, Norway, it was discovered that all kinds of plastics was buried several metres deep along the fiords. This discovery was prompted by the death of the whale.
This opened the eyes of the residents to see the urgent need to take action. In one morning a hundred residents went out on thirty boats and collected plastics (along 2 kilometres of land) that filled three skips!
This issue of plastic waste and how it is affecting innocent animals and our planet has been circulating in all social media for a long time now. It breaks my heart to see such beautiful and innocent creatures suffer in our hands.
It鈥檚 hard for me to believe that a lot of people are not affected by what they hear and see. They don鈥檛 think about change. They don鈥檛 want to change. Not for the animals. Not for our future generations. Not even for their own children.
This whale came to die among humans for a reason. We believe it has a message for us. Our hope is that the tragedy of the plastic whale will make a great impact on the entire world. Our hope is that this whale did not die in vain.
This documentary brought me to tears. Please watch it and take the first step to make a change, please 馃檹馃徎鉂わ笍
Images were screenshots taken from the documentary.
