THE release of helium balloons is no cause for celebration on North Stradbroke Island.
Since Wednesday, hundreds of balloons have been recovered on Flinders Beach - each an uncanny representation of marine jellyfish.
Wildlife carer Carolyn Hahn said helium filled balloons eventually shredded and, in the water, resembled the tentacles of a jellyfish.
And while carers might notice the difference, it all just looks like food for turtles and other marine life, which can choke on the balloons or die from having their digestive systems blocked by them.
The issue came to a head last week with hundreds of green and gold balloons found on the beach, balloons which Carolyn guesses may have originated from a sports event at Suncorp Stadium.
She also commented on a pink spotted balloon which was just the right colouring for squid.
"This is what turtles love to eat. They look at this lovely food and think 'Yum yum. That's a nice colour, I'll eat that'.
"Turtles love shiny things. They have no tastebuds so they wouldn't know," she said.
Carolyn said the balloons had been collected by her neighbour Judy Dragona who picked up a bucketful while walking on the beach near beach entry number nine, only to recover a second bucketfull which had floated to shore on her return journey.
“We are starting to look like the island in the middle of the Pacific where the trash lands. I can’t believe what has been recovered in three days,” Carolyn said.
“The main ones are these green and gold ones, probably from an Australia game but we have also had balloons from a Toyota sale, kids workshops, anniversaries, weddings and even those balloons sent up each day to check barometric pressure. One really interesting one came from a turf farm encouraging people to ‘go green’.”
Carolyn said compounding the problem was that wildlife did not only eat the balloons but had to cope with the strings and plastic pieces attached.
“It’s all together. Once they eat the ‘squid’ balloon, they have to keep going with whatever is tied to it and that could also be multiple balloons,” she said.
“It gets me angry. I also walk with my daughter at Wellington Point and I see those full dog faeces bags floating in. Clearly people have used them and thrown them into the water. This is killing the fish. Plastic is the bane on earth.”
Manager of research and education with the University of Queensland Moreton Bay Research Station Kathy Townsend said these balloons and other plastic waste were a real threat.
“Lots of animals are getting tangled in it or ingesting it. It’s a hidden killer. A lot of people aren’t aware of how dangerous they really can be,” she said.