We, The Ocean Project Seychelles, together with Sustainability for Seychelles (S4S), are calling on the Ministry of Environment to take concrete action to get balloons banned on beaches in Seychelles, and on all members of the public to support this important cause to protect our beautiful ocean and its marine life so that they may be enjoyed by the Seychellois people and our visitors for generations to come. We believe that effective protection of our oceans requires regulation not only of sea-based activities, but also of land-based activities which threaten serious harm to our marine environment.

Though we have grown accustomed as a society to seeing balloons as synonymous with celebration, there is a sinister side to this party staple. The dangers of balloons to the marine environment and the species which inhabit it has been known for years now, with many scientific studies into the impacts of balloons on marine wildlife conclusively finding that this single use plastic item poses a real and serious risk of mortality to sea turtles and seabirds which often mistake balloons for their favourite prey – jellyfish and squid. When ingested by these animals, balloons tend to get lodged in their digestive tracts with the resulting blockages leading to choking and starvation.

One study has found that balloons are the highest-risk plastic debris item for seabirds and are 32 times more likely to kill than ingested hard plastics. Another study provides evidence for the disproportionate ingestion of balloons by sea turtles, emphasising that “the observed trend towards selectivity for rubber items, particularly balloons, highlights the need for targeted pollution prevention plans”. We believe in the urgent necessity to implement such plans here in Seychelles and to enshrine them into law.

Despite the naturally stunning beauty of our surroundings – our beaches offer world-renowned vistas - we are all too familiar with the sight of popular beaches like Au Cap, Anse Royale, and Beau Vallon adorned with balloons tied with ribbons to trees and vegetation. And we are all equally familiar with the unsightly litter left behind by the celebrations the next day. The sad reality is that more often than not these balloons and ribbons along with the inherent risk of entanglement and choking that they pose to our wildlife, are left behind to be either taken by the tides or blown away by the wind into the ocean.

This is cause for serious concern because while latex balloons are often marketed as being “biodegradable”, once they come into contact with water  – as is highly likely to happen when they are left behind on the beach – they can take anywhere between 6 months and 4 years to actually decompose. This gives them plenty of time to be ingested by wildlife. Mylar balloons are completely non-biodegradable. Balloon waste is a part of plastic pollution and needs to be treated as such.

Governments worldwide are taking targeted measures (such as the banning of helium balloon releases) to prevent balloons from entering the marine environment and it is time for the Seychelles government to do the same. We believe that such measures need to be adapted to our country’s particular concerns – hence why we are calling for balloons and other plastic/synthetic decorations to be banned on beaches, in order to significantly reduce the risks of them entering the ocean. We hope that the ban will encourage the use of natural, reusable, and locally made decorations over balloons and other plastic/synthetic options.

The Ocean Project and S4S invites you to show your support for protecting our beautiful oceans by signing this petition.

Studies referenced in this document:
> Lauren Roman, Britta Denise Hardesty, Mark A. Hindell, Chris Wilcox (2019) A quantitative analysis linking seabird mortality and marine debris ingestion. Scientific Reports, 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-36585-9
> Schuyler Q, Hardesty BD, Wilcox C, Townsend K (2012) To Eat or Not to Eat? Debris Selectivity by Marine Turtles, PLoS ONE7(7): e40884. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0040884