New Zealand's favourite beached whale has died after falling victim to all the plastic floating in the world's oceans.
That's the message behind a new campaign by Greenpeace NZ and the creators of the Beached Az Whale, a humorous YouTube video which pokes fun at the Kiwi accent.
Fans of the original Australian-made video will recognise the once blue whale, now a white ghost, telling his best mate, the seagull, why he died from eating too much "plistuc" - that's plastic in a thick New Zealand accent.
But that's not the worst of it because "the whole ocean is gittung did too".
According to Greenpeace, plastics make up to 80 per cent of all marine debris in the ocean.
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Furthermore, since the industrial revolution the water has become more acidic due to increased CO2 levels.
The light-hearted message in Beached Az Whale is Did is designed to draw attention to marine life ahead of World Oceans Day on June 8.
Producer Anthony MacFarlane hopes humour will spread the message about what he believes is quite a serious issue.
"We just want all the cuzzies and bros out there to know that the ocean's getting pretty sick and it's time we all took notice, so we don't have to kill off any more cartoon whales," he said in a statement.
He hopes he will never have to kill off another cartoon whale.
"It's been pretty traumatic."
