A teenager in Northern California has collected more than 50,000 golf balls — weighing some 2.5 tons — from the bottom of the ocean over the past two years. Now, working with scientists at the Stanford University, Alex Weber has co-published a new paper in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin on the dangerous microplastics and toxins being released into the ocean as the golf balls degrade.
Weber first discovered the golf balls two years ago while diving in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, in a small cove off the world-renowned Pebble Beach golf course near Carmel, California. “You couldn’t see the sand,” Weber, now 18 years old, told NPR News. “It was completely white… It felt like a shot to the heart.”
Read more at Yale Environment 360
Image: A harbor seal investigates sunken golf balls in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. CREDIT: ALEX WEBER /MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN