Many animals, such as the bird in the photo, die from entanglement rather than eating them. But for crits in the ocean, things that aren’t obviously inedible (such as rocks) are, by definition, considered edible. The BBC article mentioned a sea turtle that had eaten a balloon. Sea turtles eat things like jellyfish, which look a lot like a partially inflated balloon floating in the water, so it’s not surprising that a turtle might eat one and there’s probably nothing you can do to make them not look like a jellyfish.

I happened to catch part of the Euro 2008 opening ceremony on the tv in a pub recently. I couldn’t hear what the commentators were saying, but I got the impression the event was trying to make some sort of environmental statement in the ceremony.

And then they released hundreds and hundreds of green balloons.

One thing I can see that isn’t pointed out in the original article is this.. if I was driving down the road and just dumped a large rubbish bag full of 100′s of old broken balloons with strings, ribbons, etc, etc I would no doubt be done for flytipping (littering). But this is exactly what companies that do mass balloon releases do, but they spread that rubbish all over the country and possibly other countries.. yet they aren’t held responsible for the rubbish they pollute the world with. How is that fair? There should perhaps be a requirement of balloon companies to put a tag on every single balloon released so the people responsible for cleaning up the mess can bill the company that ultimately put the rubbish there.

While they do have a case for the problem, further evidence needs to be produced to find out why sea life are interpreting balloon fragments for food. Would an alternative be to release balloons that degradable within a few days of being released? or remove any plastic fittings or ribbon attachments from the balloon? Another idea is to release balloon colours that do resemble food (No green colours for example).

Whatever the outcome, the Marine conservation society must work with the Balloon Companies and the UK Association (NABAS) to bring the concern to a conclusion. If the MCS succeed with banning balloons, the killjoys may be looking at criticising other businesses for their profile gain. Can MCS ban everything that may cause an accident?

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