June 9, 2014: All The 'Pretty Litter'

365 Project, Day 201

Here is my day 200 submission to my 365Project:

I just finished my last rotation working as Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) and Passive Acoustic Monitor (PAM) in the North Sea. Specifically, we were working offshore northeast England near Newcastle and something I noticed, compared to many other regions I have worked around the world, was the great number of plastic debris, especially balloons, that we observed. Partway through the trip I started photographing as many of the balloons I observed as I could and decided to make this little poster showing how many balloons we observed. 

People are becoming more aware of the increasing concerns of plastic debris i.e. from well documented information on the giant ocean garbage patches, but these issues will always have much greater impact when observed first hand. Most days while working in the North Sea we observed a disturbing amount of marine plastic debris, especially balloons! We knew that Newcastle had a reputation as a party town but is this spillover of really necessary? 

What impacted me the most was really how much these plastic balloons, especially the silver helium balloons, look like jellyfish as they break down. Many times I would observe what I thought was a jellyfish drifting in the water only to find out it was actually a plastic balloon! It is not hard to imagine how much marine wildlife is ingesting this litter and starving to death as a result! 

The solution is for each of us to make the choice to not only avoid putting these deadly plastics in the environment but to remove the potential for them to end up there by ceasing using these helium filled balloons completely!

To learn more about plastics and the marine environment check out these webpages:

Balloons Blow...Don't Let Them Go!

To eat or not to eat, debris selectivity by marine turtles

Turning the tide on trash (A learning guide on marine debris by NOAA USA)