I am writing to share my outrage over an event I witnessed on July 22. While enjoying a beautiful Sunday on Leo Carrillo beach, a very large group of people (100+) arrived, holding balloons and flowers. As some individual balloons began to fly I began to get disturbed. My friends and I began collecting Mylar balloons, handing them back to the group organizer, requesting that he ask his group not to release their balloons and litter on the beach. We do have laws about this kind of thing.
This group was here to honor a fellow student after his death. The entire group moved down the beach a few yards and began releasing flowers into the water. This was followed by a most shocking sight-the mass release of dozens upon dozens of balloons into the air. Within 10 seconds they were completely out of sight as the flowers in the water slowly floated out to sea.
My friends and I continued to collect plastic bouquet wraps, balloons and ribbons from all over the beach as this massive group of litterbugs irresponsibly vacated the beach as quickly as they arrived. We were clearly visible to this group, walking between them to put their trash into trashcans but not one even flinched.
As I looked toward Point Dume, I pictured these non-biodegradable balloons falling to the ground in my backyard. What about the fish, birds, dolphins and other animals that those balloons and ribbons will have a direct impact on? How do we honor their deaths? Would this group feel the same way if those balloons were not inflated and strewn all over their own yards? What if their dog choked on an old balloon or their cat on an old ribbon? Would they still think it was a good idea? Releasing flowers into the water is a great way to honor some one but leaving behind countless plastic bouquet wraps is just as irresponsible.
I am sorry for their loss. The untimely death of anyone is a tragedy, but are we as a society still so self-centered that we would honor the life of another by polluting the world of others? Funeral or not, these types of balloon releases are a blatant act of mass littering and should not be tolerated under any circumstance.
Jeffrey Gouda