Gray whale lunging, a feeding behavior. Captions and Photo source: Dr. Steven Swartz, NOAA/NMFS/OPR
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A gray whale found dead in Washington state’s Puget Sound had been feeding on shrimp and also had some debris, including pieces of rope, plastic, plastic bags, golf ball and some flat spongy material in its stomach, NOAA Fisheries said.
“Gray whales can pick up marine debris because of the way they feed, scooping up sediment from the sea floor and filtering it through baleen. Whatever trash and debris sitting on the sea floor in that sediment is trapped inside the mouth, and it will then swallow,” Kristin Wilkinson, marine mammal stranding coordinator for the Northwest region with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said…
