21 Balloons and a Bigger Problem: What Marine Debris Means for Dolphins
During our 2025 Bahamas field season with the Wild Dolphin Project, our team collected 21 balloons floating at or near the ocean’s surface — and that was from just one trip. Over the course of the summer, we encountered and removed many balloons and other forms of marine debris,
Plastic is Bad. Real Bad.
In the Bahamas, spotted dolphins play with sargassum seaweed. They play games of keep away and chase, passing the seaweed effortlessly from their rostrum, to pectoral fin to fluke. But sadly, they also play with plastic — we witness it. So far this summer, we’ve already observed dolphins playing with