Residents battle in vain to save beached whale in the Philippines

Residents battled in vain to save a beached whale in the Philippines.

Footage shows locals pouring buckets of sea water onto the marine mammal while waiting for rescuers to arrive in Mati City, Davao Oriental province on May 1.

Jay Pacaldo said fishermen found the whale stranded while appearing to have difficulty moving so they called their neighbours for help.

However the animal was too weak when it was discovered so it eventually died after only half an hour after it was found by people.

Jay said: ‘It’s said because the whale did not last long.

It looked old and sick but I am not sure how it died.

We did everything we could to help him but it was too late.’ Marine biologist Darrel Blatchley arrived to perform a necropsy on the whale to ascertain the cause of death a day later on May 2.

After checking the animal’s organs the team found several plastic bags blocking its airways until it grew weak and died of asphyxiation.

As the whale continued to inhale less oxygen its body fell weaker until it was washed ashore by the waves and died on the sand.

Statistics from international non-government organisation by World Wide Fund for Nature states that every year 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises get accidentally entangled in nets and lines or die through suffocation, starvation, or exhaustion after ingesting plastic.