‘Weird Black Globs’ Are Invading Florida Beaches

Over the weekend, a few beaches around Fort Lauderdale had to be closed down as “tar balls” washed ashore.

Beachgoers who were expecting to relax along the South Florida coast wound up stepping on “dark, greasy balls of oil,” according to the Sun Sentinel.

NBC Miami spoke to some people who were there that day, with one visitor referring to them as “weird, black globs” that some mistook for a sea creature. Lifeguards told the people that it had been connected to an oil spill in the middle of the ocean, though that hasn’t been confirmed.

The U.S. Coast Guard is working with the Department of Environmental Protection to determine the source of these strange balls washing up on the shore.

Black Tar Blobs Wash Up on Florida Beaches

Another person told WSVN 7 News Miami that they had no idea what was on their feet when they came out of the water.

“We didn’t realize what it was until we were trying to wash the sand off and there were these little dark spots on the bottom of our feet,” they told the outlet, adding that it was “really hard to get off our feet.”

The beaches that closed on Saturday ended up reopening on Sunday as the Coast Guard continued its clean-up efforts WSVN reported with a statement they received from the military branch that they are “coordinating with local government agencies” in the process.

Knowing that there are random blotches of oil possibly floating around the ocean probably would have me skipping the beach for a few days, to be honest. But it was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida so the beaches remained busy even with that risk out there.

I guess anytime you step into the ocean, there’s something that could go wrong, so what’s a little oil on your foot, right?