Have you met the Monomoy Balloon Man?
No, he is not a painted up clown who creates colorful balloon animals for children at parades. He is simply someone who cares about our beaches and wildlife here on the Cape and Islands.
Topher Mira is a sailor, adventurer, naturalist, videographer and a collector.
photo by Topher Mira
What does he collect? Discarded and deflated mylar balloons that wash up on one of the Capes most famous barrier beach islands. How many does he have? A lot. In fact, too many. And it’s a little upsetting.
Topher often takes his small boat over to Monomoy several times a year and records what he finds.
This year, a friend of his asked him to make an Earth Day themed video for students who were staying home during the pandemic.
This was the second video I had ever seen from Topher. It was his most recent video that caught my attention on social media. He had just set a personal record for the number of discarded balloons picked up in a single day. He and two of his friends hiked approximately 5 miles on the island and collected 62 balloons. What made the number even worse, was that he had already collected nearly 2 dozen balloons only a few days earlier.
Why is this a problem? Balloons can be mistaken for food and eaten by animals. Sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish and birds have been reported with balloons in their stomachs and ribbons and strings can lead to entanglement, which could kill them.
I have a challenge for you: See how many balloons you can collect the next time you go to the beach! Post them on social media and let’s get at least a little more trash out of the water and off our beautiful beaches!
Thanks!
If you have a story you’d like to share, please email me: [email protected]
If you’d like to help Topher keep our beaches and waters clean, he’d love to hear from you: [email protected]
You can also find more of his videos and stories on his facebook page and youtube channel.
photo by Topher Mira
About Cat Wilson
