CRYING AN OCEAN
Blue Planet II fans vow never to use plastic bags again after watching a whale carry its dead calf for days when it was poisoned by pollution
BLUE Planet viewers have vowed never to use plastic again after watching the heartbreaking moment a whale carried her dead newborn baby around the ocean.
Emotional footage showed the whale couldn't let go after developing an emotional attachment to the baby and cradled her newborn through the waters.
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David Attenborough warned about the impact of pollution in Sunday's episode, and told viewers it was possible the whale had poisoned her own baby through contaminated milk.
The 91-year-old presenter said: "Today in the Atlantic waters they have to share the ocean with plastic. A mother is holding her newborn young – it’s dead.
"Pilot whales have big brains, they can certainly experience emotions. Judging from the behaviour of the adults, the loss has infant has affected the entire family.
"Unless the flow of plastics and industrial pollution into the ocean is reduced, marine life will be poisoned by them for many centuries to come.
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"The creatures that live in the big blue are perhaps more remote than any other animal but not remote enough to escape the affects of what we are doing to their world."
Her plight struck a chord with viewers, who pledged to take better care of the environment after seeing the story.
Emily Griffiths wrote on Twitter: "Mother whale carrying her dead pup is just heart rending. And needless. Were it not for us wasteful humans. #blueplanet #plastic"
Beth Dickeson added: "Watching all the plastic in the sea on Blue Planet 2 makes me hate myself and all humans."
Vanessa Murphy said: "That baby whale and it’s mum are too much I’m never buying plastic again."
An estimated 300 million tonnes of plastic is currently in our seas and another 12 million tonnes ends up there each year.
Last week, broadcaster and environmentalist Ben Fogle wrote an impassioned plea to Sun readers warning plastic has been found in the stomachs of sea creatures living SIX MILES below the surface.
He said: "These garbage patches appear all over the world in every ocean. At many you can’t see the rubbish but if you dip a cup in the water and hold it up to the light it’s full of thousands of microbeads.
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"All this plastic pollution is not really the fault of us, the consumer — it’s the manufacturers and supermarkets.
"We have little choice but to buy food covered in plastic and even if you wanted to live free of it, these days it’s almost impossible.
"While it is a great, cheap and tough commodity the problem is the bottle we use once and throw away takes 450 years to break down."
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