When Bad Movies Kill

August 21, 2014, a young female sei whale was

discovered dead in St. Julien’s creek, off the Elizabeth River,

a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

An Endangered Whale Killed By A DVD Case

A sei whale, which is the fourth largest rorqual, was found swimming in the Elizabeth River at the Chesapeake Bay in August 2014. The species of whales that it belonged to was listed as endangered and was usually found in the deep waters of the Atlantic. Biologists from the Stranding Response Team of the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, a marine science museum, were notified of the sighting, reported National Geographic.

Susan Barco, the research co-ordinator of the Aquarium, said that the whale, which measured about a total of 45 feet, was in the wrong place and at the wrong time. She said that the whale seemed disoriented and that she and her colleagues made an attempt to protect the whale from a collision with a ship. Though she and her team made efforts to protect it, a few days later, it was found dead. She said that the death was a long and painful decline.

I reported on this back in August when the whale was first found.

An autopsy of the whale showed that the whale had swallowed a piece of black plastic that resulted in laceration of the stomach. The black, rigid plastic was identified as a plastic DVD case that had broken off. It looked like the whale had swallowed the piece of the DVD case when it was feeding. In addition to that, the whale had been hit by a ship resulting in a fractured vertebrae.

Do your part to keep trash out of the water.