A decade-long study found balloon fragments are omnipresent on Virginia’s beaches and remote islands.
About two decades ago, Christina Trapani was working with the Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response Program and started noticing a trend with some of the sea turtles they rescued. “We would find bits and pieces of balloons in their bellies,” she said. “It was obvious that this was something that could be affecting wildlife.”
Trapani’s experience at the aquarium set her on a yearslong quest to curb balloon litter, which has proven pervasive in coastal Virginia. She’s now director of the nonprofit Clean Virginia Waterways, which recently completed a decade-long survey of trash on Fisherman Island off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Balloons and their ribbons topped the list of trash they identified, with nearly 6,000 pieces found on the island between 2014 and 2024. The group also collected lots of plastic bottles, shotgun shell, food wrappers and fishing gear. “When we look at our coastal beaches, especially the remote beaches, balloons are almost always in the top three types of litter that we record,” Trapani said.
Balloons are a particular concern in coastal Virginia because of easterly winds that blow them here from all over, and waves that bring them to shore. She’s found balloons bearing logos from Kansas, North Carolina, New York and Ohio. “Anything that's released inland is going to get blown offshore, and then it's going to wash back up eventually,” Trapani said. “We'd be out on the islands and actually watching balloons come in, which is really sad.”
Environmental groups previously documented balloon debris at False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach and a few barrier islands off the Eastern Shore. The recent report focused on Fisherman Island because of limited funding, Trapani said. It included site surveys twice a year. Almost 70% of the balloon litter recorded was concentrated on the highest sections of the beach, which serve as critical habitat for nesting shorebirds and diamondback terrapins.
Balloons float? Who knew?
Virginia lawmakers took action on the issue in 2021, passing a ban on intentional balloon releases with a civil penalty of $25 per balloon for violations. Virginians were previously allowed to release up to 50 balloons per hour. Balloon litter has decreased since the new law took effect, Trapani said. Before, an average of 240.6 pieces of balloon litter were found per mile, according to the report from Clean Virginia Waterways. That dropped to 174.9 afterward.
But there’s still a long way to go, Trapani said. She’s working on a program to allow people to recycle balloons and other party decorations. It started after they connected with Balloon Mission, a New York-based organization that aims to reduce balloon waste. The group works with TerraCycle, a recycling company in New Jersey, to offload balloons collected through cleanups or donations. The company converts them into materials used in manufacturing, such as for industrial flooring.
Trapani hopes to recycle 1 million balloons within three years in Virginia. That could include retailers or individuals who want to participate and ship balloons straight to TerraCycle. “We have to find another way to dispose of them,” she said. “If you're going to use balloons, let's just recycle them and give them a second life.”
We find balloons on the beach occasionally, I have yet to see any marine animal affected by them. I think since Maryland's anti-balloon law went into effect there may be a little less.Or maybe, it's just the press the problem has received.
Really? Can't you guys (and gals, don't want to be sexist) give it up for just a few days? Like the famed Christmas Truce in WWI? I guess not, so here goes.
Nicholas Ballasy at JTN, More Republicans than Democrats returned Sam Bankman's FTX 2022 cycle campaign donations, "OpenSecrets.org's data continues to be updated on a rolling basis as additional donations are returned. Although Sam Bankman-Fried's ill-gotten gains went to candidates on both sides of the aisle, so far it appears more Republicans than Democrats have returned the money."
NewsMax hears the Secret Service May Be Probing Ex-'Dukes of Hazzard' Star "John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard," may be investigated by the Secret Service for social media posts directed at President Joe Biden. . . . "Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung," Schneider wrote. "Your son too. Your response is..? Sincerely, John Schneider." At least it's not Catherine Bach.
Mark Judge (you may remember him from the Kavanaugh nomination) at WaEx writes of The American Stasi and the war on the Supreme Court. Daniel Oliver at Am Great, The Media Assault on Clarence Thomas, "The senior justice is the sort of man who can tell what a woman is. In Wokeville, such men are dangerous. That is what the whole ethics “scandal” is really about."
Passantino filed a $67 million Federal Tort Claims Act Complaint against the
congressional panel, claiming the group "manufactured and promoted a false
narrative" about him, "maliciously interfered in the attorney-client
relationship," and disregarded his civil rights "to further a political
agenda" against former President Donald Trump. "Liz Cheney and her
collaborators on the January 6th Committee decided to peddle a false tale
about Mr. Passantino and his relationship with his client without any regard
for the truth or whether they were destroying the reputation of a good man; a
reputation built over decades," Passantino's attorney, Jesse Binnall, said in
a statement.
Sauron's Eye,
Judge rejects Trump's request to delay New York rape trial. "A federal judge rejected a request Thursday to delay former President
Donald Trump's trial this month on civil claims that he raped a woman in the
mid-1990s, but he has granted a request by Trump's lawyers to gather more
evidence about who is paying the accuser's lawyers. New revelations that a
major contributor to Democrats helped finance the litigation against Trump by
columnist E. Jean Carroll prompted attorney Alina Habba to ask for a one-month
delay of the April 25 trial."
At the Peacock,
Ex-Capitol Police officer sentenced after sending 'stupid and reckless'
messages to Jan. 6 rioter
"Michael Riley was convicted of a felony count for deleting messages he sent
to a Jan. 6 rioter after he learned the rioter was speaking to the
FBI. After the Capitol attack, he messaged Jan. 6 rioter Jacob Hiles, a
boat captain he knew from Facebook, telling Hiles he was "a capitol police
officer who agrees with your political stance" and saying Hiles should “Take
down the part about being in the building they are correctly investigating and
everyone who was in the building is going to be charged. Just looking out!”
CNN, Former Trump intel official testifies in Mar-a-Lago classified documents
probe. Grenell says Trump declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents. “There is no
approval process for the president of the United States to declassify
intelligence. There is this phony idea that he must provide notification for
declassification but that’s just silly. Who is he supposed to notify? I think
it’s the height of swampism to think the president should seek bureaucrats’
approval.”
JTN's Ben Whedon reports Montana lawmakers vote to ban TikTok statewide. "The measure would bar TikTok from operating in the state and forbid
app stores from offering it for download in Montana." I wonder how that's
going to work.
Donald Trump has been indicted for something old and trivial. Manhattan
District Attorney Lavrentiy Alvin Bragg has acceded to the left’s demand
that Trump be arrested for the unforgiveable act of winning the 2016
presidential election. Bragg was shown the man, and he obediently found “the
crime.”
We can register our disgust about hypocrisy, or a
two-tier justice system, or criminalizing politics, etc. Or we can respond
in kind. The last option is the only one that will make this stop.
What high profile Democrat should a Republican District Attorney indict? How
about Alejandro Mayorkas?
As Secretary of Homeland Security, Mayorkas has thrown our border open to
narco-terrorists, human traffickers, and anyone else who wants to cross the
border.
What crime should he be charged with? Mayorkas is an
accessory to every crime committed by someone who crossed the border
illegally during the Biden administration. He is an accessory to every death
from fentanyl that was transported across the border. He is an accessory to
sex trafficking. He is an accessory to child abandonment. I could go on.
Who
can indict him? There are 254 counties in Texas alone, most of them deep
red, and there are a couple thousand more deep red counties throughout the
country. The District Attorney in any county touched by the Biden
administration’s open border/catch-and-release policy could summon a grand
jury and indict Mayorkas.
Stacy McCain,
Brain-Damaged John Fetterman Gets ‘Democrat Helper’ Served by CBS News "There is never any segment during the interview where Fetterman is
shown speaking in a single shot for more than five or 10 seconds
consecutively. And if you watch carefully, these interview excerpts constitute
a fairly small share of the 10-minute piece, much of which is filled with
Paulie narrating a tale of Fetterman’s “struggle,” intended to frame this as
the saga of a hero courageously overcoming misfortune."
Twitchy, Rural mom says you don’t hunt with an AR-15 because ‘it destroys the
meat’. AR-15s are generally considered too light for hunting deer, even my .243
"Deer slayer," a much more powerful cartridge, is often frowned on in favor of
30.06s etc. An AR is too big for small game, rabbits squirrels and so on; as
rural mom notes, it makes too much mess. They are, however, perfect for
varmint and wild hog hunting. Like boats and golf clubs, different tools for
different jobs.
When last we checked in on “Jessica,” he/“she” had been
arrested in January 2020 on charges of assaulting a Canadian journalist
outside a courthouse. In case you’d forgotten — who could ever forget? — Yaniv
became notorious for going to salons and seeking genital waxing (depilation) on his/“her” genitalia, then filing complaints of discrimination when the
requested treatment was denied, hence giving rise to the
#waxmyballs hashtag
in reference to the case.
The good news is, there will be no
further such cases filed by Yaniv because he/“she” finally underwent “gender
confirmation” surgery in January 2021. The bad news is, there were
post-operative complications that led Yaniv to file a lawsuit against a
Vancouver clinic, and also, whatever you do,
DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK
if you don’t want to know what botched sex-change surgery looks like. The
folks at KiwiFarms employ the phrase “gaping axe wound” to describe the result
of Yaniv’s surgery, and anyone willing to risk irreversible mental trauma can
click the link to discover how accurate that phrase is. DON’T DO IT!
Paula Bolyard at PJ Media says DOJ Finally Finds a Church Attack It Doesn't Like "On Saturday, March 25, 2023, the Community Church of Chesterland
(“CCC”), located at 11984 Caves Road, Chesterland, Ohio, reported to Chester
Township Police that the church had been damaged by what appeared to be
Molotov cocktails during the night. During the same time, a sign on CCC’s
property was damaged. CCC believes the acts were perpetrated in response to
the church’s planned hosting of two drag show events on April 1, 2023. Open
source searches revealed that individuals plan to be present and armed en
masse at the events to protest. Representatives of CCC reported that they
received hate mail and messages containing non-specific threats of protest and
violence against the drag events. Images of the damage are shown below."
At Althouse. "Only now — as a student about to graduate — do I realize how few
classmates agree with the loudest ones." ""Most of us fall somewhere between or are still forming our opinions.
A friend recently told me that 'coming out as a moderate was more difficult
than coming out as gay at Stanford Law School.' He eventually moved to San
Francisco so he could 'just ignore the madness.' These dynamics are hardly
unique to Stanford. My friends in law school at Yale and Harvard, among
others, have shared similar experiences...."
Insty comments,
"It helps the bullies that the law school administration encourages and
empowers them. Plus: “The quietness of people in the middle makes extremism
work. They’re so busy being invisible that they don’t notice — or acknowledge
— the role they play.”" JG Martin Institute sees
Wage Discrimination at App State
"In the name of “diversity,” the UNC-System institution may have violated
federal law." Joel Kotkin at Quillette, on Race and State "The emerging racial state promises no real progress for most
minorities while deepening ethnic divides and undermining the basis for
democratic self-rule"At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 04.03.23, Behind The Black sees Pushback: University will hire no one who supports “critical race
theory”.
Capt. Ed at Hat Hair, Did Twitter's algorithm have a back door for gov't censors? Plus:
Shadow-ban code revealed? "Tey revealed his research on the mechanism for intervention, saying,
“When needed, the government can intervene with the Twitter algorithm. In
fact, @TwitterEng (Twitter Engineering) even has a class for it –
‘GovernmentRequested.’” Tey also provided a direct link to the code on GitHub
for public review."
A growing body of evidence shows U.S. govt officials, agencies, & contractors demanding Facebook & Twitter censor ordinary Americans. Now, an influential censorship advocate has admitted that she worked for the CIA. Who is she? Why is she so influential?https://t.co/XP9NAljN4G
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 3, 2023
At Althouse, The feeling that the blue checks were honoring a reputation that had been curated for 10 years. "It's like the cry "I thought you loved me!" when a marriage comes to an end. No, this was not love. It was not honor. It was just the 2 of us, responding to incentives, in an awkward dance that was only ever commercial, and now, an exchange of money is needed, and you owe me."
The Tennessee Star reports
Minnesota Democrats Want to Ban Gas-Powered Lawn Mowers, Zambonis
“This legislation wisely leaves snowblowers off the list of contraband, but
its introduction demonstrates that urban and suburban liberals have no idea
how rural Minnesotans live their lives, and it suggests that they don’t care
to learn,” added Orr, who specializes in energy and environmental issues."
Mr. Luft was arraigned last Friday on charges of illegal arms trafficking
but swiftly cast the claim as retaliation by President Biden for his
cooperating with an investigation pertaining to his son, the artist Hunter
Biden. It is probably outlandish to think that the impetus for the arrest
of a fairly innocuous-looking Israeli citizen could have come from a
vengeful White House — or is it? The case, which was first reported by the
Israeli news website Ynet and has since rippled across Greek and Cypriot
press outlets, is by turns mysterious and portentous, particularly in
light of the growing congressional scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s questionable
business dealings with both Communist China and Ukraine. . . .
"
Sounds like a shadowy criminal all right. I mean, he’s a professor, and
appears on cable news. Those guys are capable of anything.
At Insty, Mark Tapscott has a NEW J6 BOMBSHELL: Two undercover officers shadowed Ashli Babbit during the January 6 riot at the Capitol and one of them was heard to say prior to her death that “someone will get shot.” This is the latest report from my Epoch Times colleague, Joseph Hanneman, who has doggedly followed the blizzard of J6 court filings, analyzed endless hours of J6 video and talked with legions of witnesses, participants, law enforcement experts and more. Joe is the real-deal journalist.
