Officials with an eastern North Carolina sea turtle preservation nonprofit are asking people not to celebrate milestones or life events by releasing balloons into air.
The Topsail Turtle Project says almost 20 balloons were found on the beach just this week.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Mammalogy Research Curator Michael Cove said balloon releases can put whales, sea turtles, and other creatures that live in the oceans in danger – because they look like food.
"Many of the beaked whales, their primary prey, are squids and other cephalopods, and so balloons and other plastic debris certainly look just like those when they're floating around in the open ocean,” he said.
Cove said the impact of ingesting the balloons can be incredibly detrimental.
"They have the capacity and potential to cause obstructions, and I know that a lot of research finds quite a bit of plastic in the gastrointestinal tracts of a variety of beached whales, other marine mammals and other endangered species like sea turtles.”
Last fall, a live Gervais' Beaked Whale washed up in Emerald Isle and died soon after. A necropsy found the female calf died from eating a plastic or mylar balloon.
The whale died soon after an attempt to ban mass balloon releases in Greenville failed on a close vote.
