Elementary students lead charge against balloon releases

Kids are at it again, trying to save the wild world. A fifth-grade class in the Upstate has a bill in the state Legislature that would restrict the release of balloons, to protect the state reptile, the loggerhead turtle, as well as other wildlife.

The Junior Wildlife Protectors of Belton Elementary School have launched a grass-roots movement to drum up popular support, writing letters to legislators, using a public service television spot, newspapers and other media to ask residents to contact their legislators.

"We really don't want our state reptile to be endangered or extinct. We want to save our wildlife," said fifth-grader Samantha Hardin.

The effort quickly won the support of the S.C. Aquarium in Charleston, where a sea turtle rescue hospital operates.

"I'm just impressed," said Kelly Thorvalson, hospital manager, taking a break Friday from tending to 19 injured sea turtles and 38 hatchlings from a Garden City nest that hatched late, setting the turtles out into the fierce cold at Christmas.

"It's not just turtles. It's birds and other wildlife that are interested in colorful prey. Littering is illegal in South Carolina, and releasing balloons should be considered litter," she said. "We want this passed. We want people to get excited about it."

Turtles and other wildlife mistakenly eat collapsed balloons as food or get entangled in the lines. They have killed sea turtles. Balloons regularly are found washed up on beaches during clean ups and sea turtle nest monitoring, Thorvalson said.

Last summer, she came across the wrinkled remnants of a birthday balloon in a pile of debris during a clean-up at Cape Island, 10 miles out to sea at the remotest edge of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. The island isn't much more than a large spit of sand but holds an average 1,000 sea turtle nests per year.

The class-project lobbying effort comes two years after elementary school students in Sumter battled a balking State Ports Authority and a counter bill filed by two Charleston-area legislators, in order to have the endangered right whale named the state migratory marine mammal.

Like that well-intentioned effort, this one might well float into trouble in a place where releasing balloons is as ubiquitous as children's birthday parties.

"I'll be honest with you, I don't know what chance it's got," Rep. Mike Gambrell, R-Anderson, who pre-filed the bill for this session. "We're serious about it. They're serious about it. We'll let it go and see where it goes."

Loggerheads are huge, endangered sea turtles. They have become a signature of the South Carolina coast, where females crawl ashore each summer to dig thousands of nests in the dunes, and the public-private effort to monitor and restore the declining population is a national leader.

The bill limits the release of gas-filled balloons to no more than 20 per hour, exempting research and biodegradable balloons, as well as hot air balloons that are recovered after launching. The release "poses a danger, and can cause death, to wildlife and marine animals and is a nuisance to the environment," the bill says.

The whale project didn't prompt this project, said Juanita Hall, Belton gifted-and-talented classes teacher. The kids were inspired when they heard a talk by the daughter of an assistant teacher, who had volunteered with a sea turtle nest watch group. The class also holds a read-a-thon that has raised a total $7,000 so far for the turtle hospital.

If the bill is taken up by a legislative sub-committee, the class will come for the hearing and choose a representative to testify, Gambrell said. "It'll be a good government (studies) exercise for them."

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744.