Balloons Threaten Endangered Whales Ecologist Urges Using Ones Made With Degradable Material

The plastic balloons that physicists use to gather information about weather, climate, ozone depletion and cosmic rays may pose a serious threat to endangered species of whales, an aquatic ecologist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has warned.

Dr. Gerald K. Eddlemon, one of 200 ecologists at the laboratory in Tennessee, told members of the Ecological Society of America at their meeting last month in Albuquerque, N.M., that he was particularly concerned about the survival of blue whales and right whales.

The world population of blue whales is probably fewer than 10,000. There are probably no more than 3,000 right whales.

“We had always assumed that the chance of a whale encountering a downed polyethylene balloon at sea was remote, because the ocean is so large,” Eddlemon said in an interview. “But we did some calculations based on the fact that about 10,000 balloons are launched from dozens of bases in Antarctica each year, and many of them land in the ocean.”

Up to 80 percent of the world’s blue whales, the largest of all animals, seasonally congregate in Antarctic waters to enjoy a rich harvest of krill and other small animals.

“We considered a whale’s cruising speed, the size of its mouth and some other factors in our mathematical model,” Eddlemon said, “and calculated that any whale feeding in Antarctic waters has a 7 percent chance of meeting a balloon during one year. That adds up to several hundred encounters for the whale population each year.”

Eddlemon said it was not known whether whales in Antarctic waters swallowed balloons or generally avoided them.

“But we do know that in temperate waters dead whales have been found with plastic containers obstructing their gut,” he said.

The balloons launched from Antarctica range in size from weather sondes a few yards in diameter to stratospheric balloons larger than the Hindenburg airship which carry tons of instruments used in astrophysical investigations.

The largest balloons can stay aloft for weeks, repeatedly circling the entire Antarctic continent.

Whether or not a balloon comes down at sea, it is quite likely to reach the ocean eventually.

Eddlemon proposes several steps to insure compliance with the Antarctic Treaty, which bars the 43 nations that operate bases in Antarctica from polluting the pristine continent and its surrounding ocean.

For one factor, further study is needed to determine whether balloons pose a serious hazard to the whales, he said, adding:

“It’s certain that balloons are essential to climatology, astrophysics and many other types of investigation. I’m not suggesting that anyone do away with balloons.

“But balloons made of degradable material would serve just as well as those in present use, which contain preservatives to protect them from attack by sunlight, ozone and biological organisms.”