Pregnant Whale Washed Up in Italy Had 49 Pounds of Plastic in Its Stomach

A Franca Austral whale (Southern Right Whale) and her white calf swim in the New Golf near Puerto Piramides at Peninsula Valdes, Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina, on Sept. 30, 2015. Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

*Warning, pictures may be disturbing to some readers*

SARDINIA, Italy—The carcass of a pregnant sperm whale that washed up in Sardinia, Italy, last week had 49 pounds (22 kilograms) of plastic in its stomach, and was carrying a dead fetus, the country’s environment minister and a marine life non-profit organization said.

Luca Bittau, president of the SeaMe group, told CNN the beached mammal’s remains contained “garbage bags ... fishing nets, lines, tubes, the bag of a washing machine liquid still identifiable, with brand and barcode ... and other objects no longer identifiable.”