Alarming video shows shark stomach filled with plastic bags
WARNING – GRAPHIC FOOTAGE: The devastating effect of single use plastic bags has been put on full display in alarming footage of an emaciated baby tiger shark.
Footage taken in waters off the NSW Far South Coast earlier this year shows four of the plastic bags being pulled from the stomach of the shark.
Bermagui commercial fisherman Jason “Trapman” Moyce was left in a state of shock after making the disturbing discovery.
“I don’t usually keep tiger sharks, but this small one was wrapped up in the rope,” he said in an Instagram post.
“I was in shock to find its stomach was full of plastic bags.
“Seriously, is this what we are doing to our oceans. Animals are choking on our waste. So sad.”
The damage that single-use plastic bags are having on marine life has long been a contentious issue in Australia and the rest of the world.
An estimated nine million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans each year, according to research conducted by the University of Georgia.
Several initiatives, including “sea-bins” which suck up rubbish from waterways have been introduced to international waterways in recent years, however they are considered a drop in the ocean when it comes to plastic pollution.
“The solution isn’t Seabins – it’s education, changing our consumer culture and learning how to recycle better,” Seabin Project co-founder and chief executive Pete Ceglinski said earlier this month.
As of next month, Woolworths supermarkets as well as the company’s BWS, Metro and petrol outlets will stop offering free disposable plastic bags to shoppers in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
The ban will come into place on June 20, 10 days earlier than they initially planned.
Brisbane City Council have also announced its plans to have all plastic straws, helium balloons and single-use bottles banned from all planned council planned events.
