Plastic bag-swallowing sperm whales – victims of our remorseless progress

The news that Mediterranean whales have died after ingesting our plastic waste comes as no surprise - but seems to be an omen for fallout from our disruption of the natural world

Plastic bags have been blamed for the deaths of sperm whales in the Mediterranean. The Athens-based Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute found that more than a third of the sperm whales found dead in Greek waters had stomachs blocked by plastic waste. But this comes as no surprise to whale watchers.

In a plangent 2011 report by same researchers on a mass sperm-whale stranding, a combination of factors - noise from naval exercises, dehydration and stress that caused toxic chemicals and heavy metals to be released from the whales' body fat - was found to have caused them to beach. The scene of the dying whales moved the scientists to unusually emotive language as they recorded finding them "agonising on the shore".