Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine biologist and lecturer said the plastic had made it impossible for the whale to eat any food, “if you have 80 plastic bags in your stomach, you die,” he said.

People took to Twitter to react to the tragedy, which ironically occurred on #WorldEnvironmentDay, an event aimed towards reducing harm to the planet and pollution, and Protecting the oceans.

Today is #WorldEnvironmentDay & #oneplasticfreeday. How blazingly ironic then that it is also the day our government approves plans to build a third runway at Heathrow & it is revealed that the whale who died in Thailand swallowed 80 plastic bags. This bullshit has to stop.

— Tom Dixon (@tdixon91) June 5, 2018

this breaks my heart ???? i definitely NEED to cut down on the amount of plastic i use and i urge you all to try to do the same wherever you can, even if it’s just one item a day it’s better than nothing. poor lil whale 🙁 ???? https://t.co/Pe9O4B44TT

— GABRIELLA ✨ (@velvetgh0st) June 4, 2018

This is only the latest in a line of tragedies for the wildlife of Thailand, which has one of the biggest plastic consumption rates in the world. Over 300 marine animals die annually from consuming plastic, according to local biologists from Kasetsart University.

Bangkok, the country’s capital city recently started a ‘No Bag, No Baht’ payment scheme to reduce the enormous 600,000 plastic bags that the capital consumes everyday.