Concern for whales after finding dozens of balloons in the Monterey Bay

While there are many ways to celebrate this graduation season some are actually causing harm to the ocean.

We often think of trash and plastics ending up in the ocean, but we don’t often think of balloons. Monterey Bay Whale Watch fished out 28 balloons just this past Monday. Unfortunately, the owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, Nancy Black says this isn’t anything new. “It’s just a regular, daily occurrence, which is kind of sad that every day out in Monterey Bay, there are always balloons out there.”

With graduations happening all over the Central Coast this time of the year, that balloon problem is even worse. While they can’t do much damage on land, when they find their way into the ocean, balloons can be deadly to sea life. “Animals think that they are jellyfish. Turtles choke on them. Even whales have been found washed up now with plastic bags in their stomachs, balloons in their stomachs, and that kills them,” Black says.

For a year where we have already seen so much sea life washing up dead on our shores, this
just adds to the problem. Black says, “If you have balloons… pop them and dispose of them, don’t just let them go.”

Most of the time, balloons aren’t actually let go on purpose. This graduation season, just make sure to grab those balloon strings a little tighter.