Featured Image Credit: incight.org
By Emily Persico
Pebble Beach is everything a golfer could dream of. Bordering the sea, it is 6,828 yards of pure golfing bliss. However, the sea surrounding it might tell a totally different story.
Hundreds of golf balls litter the ocean floor around Pebble Beach, the consequence of almost a century of golfing in the area. When broken down, these golf balls form clumps of micro-plastics which fish and other sea creatures mistake for food and ingest.
The rubber cores within golf balls pose a separate but equally serious threat to marine life. As it unravels, the core closely resembles seagrass, the favorite food of many a sea creature. These cores are composed of zinc acrylate, a chemical compound which the UN classified as “very toxic.”
The golf balls near Pebble Beach contribute to approximately 315 pounds of plastic currently polluting our oceans. Until now, they have sunk completely under the radar of Pebble Beach Golfers and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
It took two high school divers to discover and expose this mess. You can watch them do just that in the video below.
Thankfully, the high school students and the company responsible for the mess are committed to cleaning up the ocean.
Read more about the high schoolers and their mission to clean up our oceans.