Kiwi Olympic gold medalist and America's Cup winning sailor Peter Burling was "sad" to find deflated My Food Bag promotional beach balls floating in Auckland's Waitematā Harbour.
Burling posted an image of his discovery to Instagram last night with a message for the company.
"Hey [My Food Bag] how about heading out to Rangitoto and picking up the 30 odd more beach balls that floated out to sea today?! Not cool," Burling wrote.
"Sad seeing all these floating out into the Gulf today."
The photo was tagged by the sailor as being taken in the Waitematā Harbour.
My Food Bag chief executive Kevin Bowler told Stuff he was "disappointed" that the brussel sprout themed promotion had ended up polluting the waters and apologised on behalf of the company.
"Nothing says summer like a beach ball and yesterday we dropped a bag full of Russell the Brussel beach balls to Mission Bay and kicked them around with some excited foodies," Bowler said.
"So disappointed to learn that some people left more than their footprints on the beach with several of our Russells making their way out into the harbour, especially when we handed out tips on how to upcycle and recycle the ball.
"We apologise for the upset this has caused."
My Food Bag told Stuff once they heard about the beach balls being found in the ocean they returned to the beaches to clean up any remnants they could find.
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