Skip to main content
Rubber Jellyfish The balloon documentary

The party’s over for balloons and the ocean.

Rubber Jellyfish is the documentary that exposed how helium balloons burst into jellyfish-like shapes that sea turtles mistake for prey – and the decades of industry greenwashing that kept it quiet.

Watch the film Get involved

The issue

Why it matters

Six of the world’s seven sea turtle species are endangered. To a hungry turtle, a burst balloon looks exactly like a jellyfish.

When researchers examined the rubber litter these animals had swallowed, 78% of it was balloons or balloon fragments. Sea turtles cannot vomit, so what goes in stays in – and often kills.

Balloons have been marketed as “100% biodegradable” since the 1980s. The science tells a different story.

Read the facts behind the film

A burst yellow balloon and its ribbon washed up on wet sand.
What a party balloon looks like once the ocean has finished with it. Photo: Brian Yurasits.

Watch

See it for yourself

Ninety seconds is usually all it takes. Watch the trailer, then watch the film – it is free.

Watch the full documentary free About the film

Impact

A film that’s already changing policy

  • 80+ screening locations worldwide
  • 3 government bans on balloon releases – Fremantle (WA), Kennebunk (Maine) and Bainbridge Island (Washington)
  • 2 major companies banned balloons across their business after learning the facts

Screenings hosted by groups including Sea Shepherd, Balloons Blow, NOAA and Southern Cross University have helped push real bans into law.

See the full impact story

Get involved

Turn what you’ve learned into action

The film changes minds. What happens next is up to the people who watch it.

  • Volunteers’ haul of plastic bottles, bags and rope collected from a beach.

    Host a screening

    Bring Rubber Jellyfish to your community, organisation or festival and help build momentum for a local ban.

    Host a screening

  • A green sea turtle swimming over a coral reef in clear blue water.

    Bring it to your classroom

    Free teacher workbooks, streaming access and Q&A sessions with the filmmaker.

    For educators

Latest

News from the campaign

See all news

Contact

Get in touch

Hosting a screening, writing a story, teaching the film, or trying to stop a balloon release near you? Send us a message – we read everything.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Journalists: the full press kit, synopsis and photo library are on the contact page.