This week, the NOAA Marine Debris Program participated in a workshop put on by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, to design a social marketing campaign to curb balloon releases in Virginia with the longer term intention to expand this to the larger mid-Atlantic region.

This week project partners came together to define user groups and appropriate messages to limit future releases. People intentionally release balloons into the environment to celebrate events and commemorate special occasions. Balloon debris often ends up in streams, rivers, and the ocean where marine animals can ingest the balloons or become entangled by their attachments, causing great injury and even death. The NOAA Marine Debris Program funded an FY14 Prevention through Education and Outreach project to reduce the number of balloons released into the environment.

For more information on the project, see the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality “Marine Debris in Virginia: The Issue…” web page.

To learn more about the event, contact Rachel.Keylon@noaa.gov.

Photo: Balloons by jason2917 CC BY NC-SA 2.0

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