A Three Hour Tour

Just sit right back and your here the tale, OK I am kidding, but I really was on a 3 hour boat tour the other day and I could not get that song out of my head.  Yeah that is just how my brain works.  Anyway the 3 hour tour is the reason I write today.  It was a whale watching tour, and it was awesome (for the most part).  We actually got to witness some very active eastern Pacific grey whales, and that really did make my week.  And even though these particular whales are doing better than most, with numbers in the low 20 thousands, it was still very revealing to think how much humans have affected their populations.  There are many types of whales whose numbers are in the low 100's, and to me that just does not make sense.  But I do not write to depress you with those numbers, different post different day (get excited).  I wanted to depress you with some other numbers now that I learned during the tour (I know I am a giver like that).  On this particular tour, our boat collected 4 Mylar balloons from the ocean.  Now I am no mathematician, but that is slightly over 1 balloon per hour.  This was the not so fun part of the trip for me.
Now I openly admit that on most things I am a slow learner.  But I have seen enough images of dolphins or sharks, or insert any other marine wildlife here, to know that human trash, no matter what it is, in the ocean (or other places it is not supposed to be) is bad.  But when you see first hand what the researchers, and the scientists, and the people who actually know what they are talking about,  have been warning us about floating (less than 5 miles from shore) in the ocean, it can be a sober reminder of how destructive seemingly small actions can be.
And so on the flip side of that there are small actions that can be very positive.  So lets work on those actions.  Lets make sure we put all of our stuff in the right place.  I was able to start only a day or so after the tour.  We were walking the dogs in the park and we found 2 inflated and 2 deflated latex balloons entangled in a bush.  Easy peasy, I was able to take them home and throw them away.  I made sure to cut up all the string and the balloons and then put them in the trash.  Now just because I am boring with how I do stuff, don't let that stop you from being creative.  I am sure that there are other ways to reuse or recycle balloons if you put your mind to it.  The main goal is just don't let them get into the wrong places.  The amount of pleasure that the people on the tour got from viewing the whales was unbelievable, all the ooohing and aweing was proof.  I know they would be sad if all that came to an end because of something like trash.  I know there are so many people who really do care.  So trust me when I say I will not be offended if the number of balloons in the ocean decreases, but I will be if the number of whales, dolphins, sea turtles (insert any other animal name here) does.  So keep that in mind :) because I know no one wants to offend me (wait, what it is not all about me, oh loud sobbing noises start now, wahwahwah).  Please don't let my crying stop, go out and save the world!