During a walk on the beach at our home base, Martha’s Vineyard, our Chief Communications Director, Meghan McSwain, found herself picking up trash – again.
It inspired this video she made and this plea.
Help save our world!
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For more information on what we’ve found on our beach walks please click the following and help keep our oceans clean.
Only About 15, But the Day Is Young
A Leading Source of Beach and Ocean Trash that Might Surprise You
During my morning beach walk the week of July 4th, I ran into our trusted patrol officer, Steve. No one knows the beach better. He is on the sand most every day 12 months of the year.
We had a brief chat and I asked him what he had found on the beach so far. “Balloons and more balloons” he bemoaned. I then asked him how many. His response:
“Only about 15, but the day is young.”
What made me finally publish this over a month later?
My beach trash count from yesterday:
- 1 Milk Carton
- 2 Plastic Cups
- 5 Plastic Bottles
And..
- 15 Balloons
Please help us spread the word.
Balloons are one of the most common forms of beach trash. Unlike some other plastic problems, however, a relatively easy solution exists.
Don’t buy or release balloons for celebrations.
Why is this important?
Balloons blow for miles creating a major source of ocean pollution.
Next, encourage your community to ban them. Crazy you say. No.
If you do, you won’t be alone and will multiply the difference you make. It’s happened already in the following communities:
- Huntsville, Alabama
- San Francisco, California
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Ocean City, Maryland
- Everett, Massachusetts
- Nantucket, Massachusetts
- Provincetown, Massachusetts
- Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Ventnor, New Jersey
- Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
- Plymouth-United Kingdom
- New South Wales-Australia
- Sunshine Coast-Queensland-Australia
- Palm Beach, FL
More information on balloon laws and bans can be found by clicking here.
Take a little time to make a difference and, like Steve, help keep our oceans clean.
For more on Clean Up Oceans and links to organizations that you can support, please click the following or contact Preston McSwain directly.
In the new Spider-Man Homecoming movie, our spidey hero turns off the “Instant Kill” mode on his suit because he wants to stop harm, not add to it.
Unfortunately, however, Spider-Man balloons inspired by the film are now blowing into our oceans and their webs of plastic and string are likely to actually kill.
The picture featured in this post was taken this morning on a Martha’s Vineyard beach. Ironically, our family just saw, and loved by the way, the Spider-Man movie in Edgartown yesterday.
Along with the dangerous deflated Marvel villain we found while walking today, we picked up 16 other balloons, which brings our count over the past 7 mornings to more than 150 balloons collected along the same 1/4 mile stretch of beach.
For well over 15 years, organizations have documented the dangers of helium balloons. As an example, back in 1990, the New York Times published more than one op-ed that outlined the harmful impact of balloons and how a “baby 17-foot sperm whale… was too weak from starvation to keep itself afloat because it had innocently eaten a Mylar balloon that stuck in its stomach.”
We have documented this as well many times and wrote about it specifically last year when we helped successfully lobby the America’s Cup to stop future balloon releases. As an update to a chart in that post, what continues to be the #1 type of ocean trash found on whale watches off the coastline of New Hampshire?
As illustrated in the chart below, which represents 13 years of data collected by the Blue Ocean Society and University of New Hampshire: balloons.
Like Spider-Man does, please help us protect our surroundings from danger.
Encourage your community to disable the killing feature of balloons by banning the sale of helium-filled balloons and prohibiting any type of balloon release.
For more on Clean Up Oceans and links to organizations that you can support, please click the following or contact Preston McSwain directly.
What is the leading source of beach and ocean trash?
Many people asked this question answer plastic bottles or plastic bags.
They are a problem for sure, but, ponder the quote below. It’s what I heard when I asked this question of an older beach patrol officer, who has been on or around the water all his life (click here for more on this story and a short video).
“Balloons, they are the number one form of trash on the beach and we find many birds and seals every year who have died because of eating them…”
Based on my experiences walking beaches, I agree.
The count from my morning beach walk today was the following:
- 6 Plastic Bottles
- 1 Waxed Milk Carton
- 1 Soda Can
- 1 Plastic Food Container
- 1 Styrofoam Coffee Cup
And…
- 30 Balloons
Yesterday, I picked up 38 balloons, and one morning last year, I picked up 59 in less than 40 minutes.
As illustrated in the chart below, which represents data collected by the Blue Ocean Society and University of New Hampshire, I’m not alone.
What has been their #1 form of ocean trash collected over 14 years?
Balloons
In addition to the sheer volume of balloons, one of the more detrimental properties about balloons is that they blow.
I have written about this before and assuredly will again, but a picture from my walk yesterday drives home this point. A balloon I found on Martha’s Vineyard was from Astoria Queens in New York city.
More on this can be found at a website that we strongly encourage you to follow: Balloons Blow
The Balloons Blow website highlights not only the problem balloons cause for our oceans, but also how they harm wildlife on land and are a major cause of power outages.
Cities and towns such following have either banned helium balloons completely or made balloon releases illegal.
- Huntsville, Alabama
- San Francisco, California
- Louisville, Kentucky
- Ocean City, Maryland
- Everett, Massachusetts
- Nantucket, Massachusetts
- Provincetown, Massachusetts
- Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Ventnor, New Jersey
- Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
- Plymouth-United Kingdom
- New South Wales-Australia
- Sunshine Coast-Queensland-Australia
California, Connecticut and Florida have also taken state wide action (more can be found here).
Please help raise awareness in your community about this problem that is literally blowing around the globe. Every little action can make a difference, so take some time to make a lasting impact.
Help Clean Up Oceans by not letting balloons blow.
Related Reading:
Will Ocean Plastic Outweigh Fish
Fish In Trouble Due to Ocean Plastic
Only About 15 – But The Day is Young
Summer is back, but the plastic never left.
This weekend, we arrived on Martha’s Vineyard and I went for my first walk of the season on South Beach. At first glance, the beach was totally unspoiled. When I looked closely, however, as usual plastic and balloons were found every few feet (see the picture above).
If you Google plastic in the ocean, you will find many disturbing pictures of trash washed up on beaches in other parts of the world (see below – for the full story click here, or the image).
You might think, “this is horrible”, but then say, “I’m glad this doesn’t impact me.”
Unfortunately, if you feel this way, you are wrong.
As we often post, this is not a third world problem. It is our collective global problem that washes up on the pristine million dollar beaches of Martha’s Vineyard and even in front of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach (see below – I took this picture less than 100 yards alway from the Mar-a-Lago beach, which would have looked this way as well if it hadn’t been cleaned that morning).
Many who read this are blessed to be able to come to lovely places and enjoy time on the water boating or on the beach. When you do, don’t look the other way and walk by when you see plastic or balloons.
As we posted last time, “Don’t stand idly by.”
Take a little time to help out. Pick up just one or two things.
If we all did, the small actions of many would make a big impact and help us Clean Up Oceans!
For more on Clean Up Oceans and links to organizations that you can support, please click the following or contact Preston McSwain directly.
Contact Information for Preston McSwain
I will keep this short and just encourage everyone to look the slope of the increase in plastic in our oceans and the decline of fish populations around the world.
Don’t sit idly by.
Stand-up and be heard about the importance of the health of global fisheries.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-oceans-idUSKBN0OK28N20150605
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/brief/oceans
http://www.nature.com/news/independent-study-tallies-true-catch-of-global-fishing-1.19197
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120920-are-we-running-out-of-fish
http://www.nature.com/news/fisheries-eyes-on-the-ocean-1.17121
At the end of the Summer, my family was fortunate to be able to spend many weekends on Martha’s Vineyeard (MV). The weather was wonderful this year and we enjoyed great moments together on the beach.
Unfortunately, however, we again found many balloons in the sand and dunes.
When I tell people that we pick up trash on the beach, I typically ask them what they think is the most common from of beach trash. Many say plastic bottles, which is indeed a problem. By far though, the most common form of beach and ocean pollution we find is balloons. Most people are surprised, but more and more are starting to realize that this is a major problem.
Below are just a few Summer 2016 pictures from South Beach on MV. On one day in particular, in less than a 30 minute walk along South Beach we picked up over 20 balloons!
Balloons found by Preston McSwain on a short beach walk
In a previous post, we threw down something of a challenge for MV to join its fellow island, Nantucket (ACK), and ban balloons.
For more information on the bold action that ACK took, which we hope that MV will follow, please click the links below to our original post and another follow-up piece we published earlier this year.
“Nantucket Bans Balloons to Protect the Ocean”
“Will Martha’s Vineyard Join Nantucket?”
Please consider passing this blog and the others along to your friends and local officials.
With simple legislation similar to what was passed in ACK, we can make a real difference.
If you are not connected to MV, but love the beach or care about the health of our oceans, encourage your community to take action as well. Towns along Long Island Sound, Maine, Block Island, other coastal towns in Massachusetts, how about it (more information can be found here)
We will post additional information on the problems being caused by balloons soon, so stay tuned.
Help us make a difference and keep Clean[ing] Up Oceans!
For more on Clean Up Oceans and links to organizations that you can support, please click the following or contact Preston McSwain directly.
What type of thumbprint or impact do you want to leave on your family, community or even the world?
During my day job as an investment advisor, this is one of the first questions I ask new clients before we ever start to talk about stocks, bonds, or the multitude of investment funds and strategies that are available from Wall Street.
For those of you who follow my Fiduciary Wealth Partners blog, or some of my other personal posts, you know that I have a consistent investing theme.
Don’t make investing a competition to outperform your neighbors or friends.
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Invest based on your plan that is designed to meet your goals, not on the models or race others are running.
Somewhat related to this, days like Earth Day always get me thinking.
What is important in life?
For me, it’s about giving back to my community and being a good personal “fiduciary” as a husband and father.
Related to this, I posted the following poem not long ago.
The Man In The Glass
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he’s with you, clear to the end
And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.
– Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr.
Consider taking time out this Earth Day weekend to look in the mirror and think about what’s really important to you, your family and community.
What type of impact or thumbprint on the world do you want to make?
Preston McSwain is a Managing Partner and Founder of Fiduciary Wealth Partners, an SEC registered investment advisor committed to forming fiduciary wealth partnerships with clients, professional colleagues, and the community. To see more of his posts, and learn more about the causes that his firm and family support, please visit the following:
If plastic trash keeps growing at the same pace, it will outweigh fish in the ocean.
This was the sad projection in a report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Ellen MacArthur learned more about the problem first hand during her record breaking solo sailing circumnavigation of the globe in 2005.
According to research done by her foundation, most plastic packaging is used only once and much of it then finds its way into the ocean.
The study estimated that one garbage truck’s worth of plastic is being dumped into the sea every minute and that, if no action is taken, the pace of this plastic ocean pollution is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four truck’s worth of trash per minute by 2050.
If this happens, plastic will outweigh fish!
The graphs below highlight how significant this problem might become.
How can well all help?
First, take notice. Don’t just walk by trash on the beach.
As we have written about many times on this site, plastic doesn’t just look bad, it kills marine wildlife (for more click here).
Next, consider supporting organizations such as the following:
If you are interested in innovative start-ups, check out a new, socially-innovative company, Plastic Bank, and their brand Social Plastic. They are monetizing plastic trash in impoverished areas, where in some cases the problem is most acute.
To learn more please read Trash to Cash, which talks about how Plastic Bank is making it harder to walk by that plastic bottle on the beach.
As the warm weather returns, my family – like yours, I’m sure – will be spending more on the water or at the shore.
We will start writing more about our experiences and hope that you will all spread the word and help keep our oceans clean!
For more on Clean Up Oceans and links to organizations that you can support, please click the following or contact Preston McSwain directly.