4 comments so far.Dangers of balloons to the marine environment – Nature Trust (Malta)
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Nature Trust (Malta) is noticing that in Malta, it is becoming increasingly popular to release balloons into the air during celebrations. The organisation would like to discourage this activity because balloons pose serious dangers to wildlife such as, birds, turtles, dolphins and other animals.
When balloons are released, they will eventually end up in the sea and since these are made of rubber (latex) and will land in salty waters, they can take up to over twelve months to degrade, even if the material is degradable. As for foil balloons, these will take years to break up and some do not even degrade completely. They will keep floating in the sea till they are swallowed by wildlife. Animals, such as, marine turtles are most vulnerable as they sometimes feed on jellyfish that float on the surface, like balloons. Some birds can even get entangled in the string used to tie balloons still floating at sea.
Nature Trust would like the public to understand the dangers that balloons pose to our wildlife and would like to discourage any event organisers to cancel any future balloon releases and to replace such activities with more environmentally friendly alternatives. Together we can make a difference in protecting the environment for future generations!
Nature Trust (Malta)
I keep hearing these stories about marine life eating balloons but never see any eveidence that it actually happens.
Is there documented factual evidence – or is it just another urban myth that does the rounds?
@Ray Woods. No Ray this is not an urban myth but a reality. The following is part of a letter I wrote a few years ago outlining this problem, which I hope, will explain the problem fully.
It has been discovered that the world’s oceans are being polluted by plastic waste to a degree never before realised. In the middle of the Pacific in an area known as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, lies a floating garbage patch of plastic twice the size of Britain! And this is just the Pacific. All the world’s oceans contain Gyres, which are basically desert areas in the ocean. Due to their circular currents flotsam and jetsam have been accumulating there for decades.
The Australian environmentalist Ian Kiernan says he will never forget the first time he saw the gyre, saying: “It was just filled with things like furniture, fridges, plastic containers, cigarette lighters, plastic bottles, light globes, televisions and fishing nets.”
It is estimated there are more than 13,000 pieces of plastic litter on every square kilometre of the ocean surface. The United Nations Environment Program says plastic is accountable for the deaths of more than a million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and seals every year. A Dutch study in the North Sea of fulmar seabirds concluded 95 per cent of the birds had plastic in their stomachs. More than 1,600 pieces were found in the stomach of one bird in Belgium.
The frightening thing here is that this only accounts for the plastic floating on the surface. It has been estimated that 70% of the plastic entering the ocean sinks to the bottom where it can smother marine life. As an example Dutch scientists recently found 600,000 tonnes of plastic waste on the bottom of the North Sea alone.
Even more frightening is that this plastic is entering our food chain. Plastic by its very nature is made to be very durable. It doesn’t biodegrade like normal waste, but photodegrades due to sunlight into smaller and smaller pieces. Birds such as the fleshy-footed shearwater swallow this in mistake for fish. They then regurgitate it down the necks of their fledglings, killing them.
It has also been found that plastic polymers act like a sponge for resilient poisons such as DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls. Non-water-soluble toxic chemicals can be found in plastic in levels as high as a million times their concentration in water. As small pieces of plastic are mistaken for fish eggs and other food by marine life, these toxins enter the food chain.
So is there anything that Farsons and General Soft Drinks can do to ensure that they do not add to this environmental disaster? The answer is yes; they can stick to re-usable glass or use this changeover to send a message to the world by changing from the use of traditional petrochemical-based plastics to bioplastics. Due to the increase in oil prices the use of bioplastic is now becoming quite cost-effective.
So what is bioplastic? To all intents and purposes, it looks like plastic and feels like plastic and does the same thing as plastic, except that it biodegrades in the presence of heat, moisture and bacteria. So it will do everything that the traditional petrochemical-based plastics will do with the added bonus that when it ends up in the sea or a landfill site it biodegrades. Already supermarkets in Britain, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, have introduced bioplastic packaging, and food companies are embracing the concept.
There have been a few cases of dead marine animals found with colored latex in their digestive system. However, there are are certainly more serious threats to sea life: uncontrolled commercial fishing, industrial pollution, destruction of coral reefs. These forces cause the depletion of species and senseless deaths of thousands of animals. This group should focus important issues than trying to ruin a child’s birthday party.
Thad the point Nature Trust is making here is that it is up to all of us to do our bit. Somehow I doubt if the absence of balloons at a party would ruin it for a child. If it did it wouldn’t have been much of a party in the first place! ‘So how did the birthday party go yesterday Joe?’ ‘Total rubbish Paul, I really missed those balloons’.