Whale swallows 80 plastic bags, dies

A whale has died in southern Thailand after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags, officials said, ending an attempted rescue that failed to nurse the mammal back to health.

Thailand is one of the world's largest consumers of plastic bags, which kill hundreds of marine creatures living near the country's popular beaches each year.

The small male pilot whale became the latest victim after it was found barely alive in a canal near the border with Malaysia, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said on their Facebook page yesterday.

A veterinary team tried "to help stabilise its illness but finally the whale died" on Friday afternoon, the post said.

An autopsy revealed 80 plastic bags weighing up to eight kilograms (18 pounds) in the creature's stomach, the department added. The whale vomited up five bags during the rescue attempt before it died.

Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine biologist and lecturer at Kasetsart University, said the bags had made it impossible for the whale to eat any nutritional food.

"If you have 80 plastic bags in your stomach, you die," he said.