'Heartbreaking': Family Pulls Dozens of Balloons From Sea During Boat Trip

A family boat trip turned into a dismaying cleanup exercise off California’s Dana Point recently, as they fished dozens of celebration balloons out of the sea, something TikToker Kiana Ting described as “heartbreaking” to see.

Video by Ting, posted on her @cartierting TikTok, shows her surprise as she repeatedly fetches balloons from the ocean and puts them on her father’s boat.

“These balloons are not only trash in our oceans, they are also detrimental to wildlife,” Ting told Storyful, warning that “birds, turtles, dolphins and fish” will eat them, causing death or injury.

“With Mother’s Day, graduation and summer,” Ting said it was “peak season” for these helium-filled balloons, and urged people to “please please please be mindful” if buying them. “Our family is the first for fun and celebration,” Ting said, “but let’s all please be more aware and intelligent on how we go about it. Be part of the solution, not the problem!”

Ting said her dad, William, who owns a charter business called Off the Grid Ocean Adventures, is “offering weekly ocean clean up trips for volunteers that will help pick up balloons and trash in the ocean.” Credit: @cartierting via Storyful

Video transcript

Bro.

Tell me how the fuck my family has picked up like five.

No, honestly, almost 10 balloons already.

And I literally see there's like three more floating in the water here.

Can people please learn to pick up after themselves?

You guys disappoint me.

Ok.

This, this is now just fucking sad.

You guys, there's literally three b birds chilling next to a balloon.

Not that hard, bro.

Not the freaking metallic shiny shit coming off my hands from the balloons.

Are you serious?

What about Mother Earth?

Ok.

This is getting ridiculous.

Let's see how many more balloons we're able to collect before we make it back into the hardwood.

I think my family has already picked up like at least 20 balloons today.

Ok.

Honestly, despite having all these balloons freaking littered in the ocean, look at the glitter that's coming off of them and that shit is also staying in our oceans for context.

You guys, these are the balloons that we had picked up beforehand.

Those are the balloons, all the balloons that we picked up after I started recording.

How many balloons are there?

I have no idea.

We count them.

Yeah, we should count them.