The following is the fifth article in a 12-part series covering “LA’s Own Marineland,” a podcast documentary on the history of the oceanarium produced, written, and hosted by writer-podcaster Tod Perry. The first article in the series, “The Birth of Marineland,” which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the show’s genesis and production, can be read here.

Sunken City. For folks who’ve lived in the South Bay, Sunken City evokes a range of feelings. This is the section of Pedro where the unstable coastal ground collapsed leaving a jumbled sink hole of old concrete that’s popular with taggers.

I think by now most of us are aware of the negative impact that balloons have on our planet. They trash every ecosystem from the desert to the ocean, and suffocate as well as entangle animals all across the animal kingdom from tiny fish all the way up to the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth, the blue whale. I certainly knew this early while growing up working with wildlife around the globe, but it really hit home one day when I was out on the open ocean about 15 miles off the coast of Palos Verdes with my buddy Angel as we approached a beautiful sea creature debilitated by a single mylar balloon.