Cod swallowed cut water bottle

Cod with a 1.5 liter plastic bottle in the stomach.Photo: Bjørn Ingvaldsen / NTB scanpix

When two fishing buddies were pulling in a mackerel line, a large unruly cod followed in the catch. It turned out to have swallowed a plastic water bottle.

 

It was Tore Fjellstad and Bjørn Ingvaldsen who were fishing for mackerel in Moster near Bømlo on Friday, writes Bømlo news. On the line they got a half-bucket of herring, and an unruly large cod.

“When we tapped the cod on its stomach, we heard a strange sound. We understood the cod had something inside and it wasn’t good,” says Fjellstad to TV 2.

When they opened its stomach, they found a portion of a one and a half liter plastic bottle and the bottle was full of water.

“The bottle took up most of the space in its stomach, there was no room for anything else, so it may not have been taking in any particular nutrients or nutrition and must have been very imbalanced. The length of the fish indicates that it should have weighed about 18 kilos, but it only weighed 11.5 kilos,” says Fjellstad.

Marine biologist Pia Ve Dahlen believes the cod probably has been living some time with that bottle in the stomach since it was so skinny.

“It could be a matter of weeks or months its hard to say, but it’s probably been awhile,” she says.

This weekend in Bømlo there was a cleaning action along the waterfront and coastline.

– “Several hundred bags of plastic had been collected. There is so much plastic in the ocean and in our area here, we have very nice fish, and it is sad to see that they are being destroyed by this,” says Fjellstad.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today