A sperm whale died a “slow and painful” death on the shores of Nova Scotia earlier this week after ingesting 300 pounds of trash. The 50-foot-long male looked emaciated when it washed ashore, and although teams worked to save the whale, it died the next day.

The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative conducted an autopsy shortly thereafter and discovered fishing nets, ropes, gloves, plastics, and a curious wad of electronic components, including old computer chargers, modems, cables, and cellular phones.

Sperm whales eat like vacuums. They open their mouths, flip a rubbery switch, and aim their prayers of suction at krill—small, transparent crustaceans that occupy most of the world’s seas and oceans. Unfortunately, this blind-buffet of faith places them at higher risk of ingesting trash in the water and on the seafloor.

Myla Strand, president of the Marine Animal Response Society (MARS), told QZP News that because of how sperm whales feast, it is common to find foreign debris in their stomachs, but that the electronic clod compacted in this particular male was larger than she had witnessed in the past.

Her conclusion: the mass of dated technologies blocked the animal from consuming food, causing it to die of starvation.

“It would have been incredibly horrific and traumatic for this animal to die slowly,” Strand said.*

As if these events weren’t troubling enough, the clump allegedly “turned on” during the autopsy.

Three members of Strand’s team relayed similar narratives: Wires “writhed” in the mammal’s open carcass. Screens lit up in “bright blues” like the “inner cores of flames.” Voices started “gargling incoherently” from the cell phones.

“We panicked. I mean, wouldn’t you?” inquired Strand.

Yes. Yes we would, Ms. Strand.

“It wasn’t until yesterday that my colleague found the following words burned into one of the monitors. Times New Roman font:

nothing will content them
nothing will content them
nothing will content them
nothing will content them
nothing will content them.”

the dark
empties its sleeves
whale fall

Publisher’s Note:

*Humphrey’s slightly revised version from his source of factual information, the following news article by Stacy Liberatore for DailyMail.com (updated 23 November 2022); link retrieved by MacQ on 20 August 2023:

“More than 330 pounds of GARBAGE is found in the stomach of whale that died ‘a slow and painful death’ on the shores of Nova Scotia”

Jonathan Humphrey’s

work has recently appeared in Acorn, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, and The Heron’s Nest. With a fondness for whiskey and whippoorwills, he divides his time between the lights of Nashville and the woods of his native Kentucky.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ The Boy From Cave City, Kentucky (A Wreath of Sourgrass), haibun story by Jonathan Humphrey first published in cho 18.3 (1 December 2022); and selected for inclusion in The Best Small Fictions 2023 Anthology

⚡ NASA Gives Spiders, Insects LSD, haibun story in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 7, March 2021)

⚡ Song of Sweat (A Substation In Whitley County, Kentucky), haibun story in MacQ (Issue 4, July 2020)