The same time of year that’s a celebration for kids starting out in their lives can be a danger to the lives of sea birds and sea creatures when graduation balloons launch into the environment.
Ben Wurst of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey sees firsthand what happens: birds’ feet become entangled in the attached ribbon. Balloon debris ends up on land and in water, and birds and marine life can choke on pieces of the burst balloon itself.
There are some shorelines in particular where currents carry released, escaped or burst balloons, and one is at the end…
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