What happens to all those balloons that escape into the sky? Many of them end up in the ocean. Unfortunately they are a hazard to ocean dwellers. Sea turtles eat them because when they are frayed husks of themselves in the water, they resemble jellyfish, a favorite food of turtles. Balloons can block their stomachs. The strings entangle seabirds. Mylar balloons cause intestinal blockages in marine mammals.
Whenever we could, we picked up the balloons we saw floating in the ocean with a boat hook. There were several we couldn’t recover. Just imagine how many are out there since we only traversed a tiny section of the ocean and the balloons were everywhere!
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