This is the shocking moment a fisherman slices open a fish and discovers a full plastic bottle that had been swallowed by the animal.
The video was filmed by fisherman Djani Matic near Prapratno Bay, close to the Mljet Channel in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, and was shared on 4th March.
Footage shows the fisherman slicing open the stomach of a monkfish before reaching inside and pulling out a large plastic bottle that had been lodged in the animal’s gut.
Matic said the crew first realised something was wrong when the fish appeared unusually swollen after it was hauled up in their nets.
He said: “We were really surprised. You see all sorts of things at sea, but something like this was truly rare.”
The fisherman added that the animal looked extremely thin and appeared to have suffered.
The discovery was captured on video and later shared online, where the footage quickly spread across social media.
Pero Tutman, a scientific adviser at the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Split, said he could not recall encountering a similar case.
Tutman explained that marine organisms sometimes swallow plastic either accidentally or intentionally, but it usually involves much smaller fragments.
He said the size of the bottle made the case particularly unusual, adding that monkfish are predatory fish that normally attack and swallow other marine animals.
Tutman also noted that plastic and microplastic pollution has become widespread in the environment, including in the sea where marine organisms can ingest it.
Loading ...