Vacation destination closes beaches over gross ‘tar balls’ as cause remains a mystery

Several Florida beaches closed Saturday after mysterious tar balls washed up on the shoreline — and now the US Coast Guard is investigating their source.

Reports of the black, oily globules spanned from Port Everglades to Palm Beach, leading the Coast Guard to send a plane and boat out from Miami and Fort Lauderdale to assess the situation, the agency said in a social media post.

But even though it was working with the Department of Environmental Protection and other state officials, the federal agency hadn’t learned much about the source of the tar, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Meanwhile, wide swaths of Fort Lauderdale’s beach closed to swimmers as the oil washed ashore and slicks decorated the water, city officials said.

The shoreline remained closed until about 5:30 p.m.

“When we first came down here, there was like weird, black globs on the beach,” one man told NBC 6 South Florida. “I thought it was a sea creature or something.

“Then the lifeguard came down and they’re like, ‘Everybody out of the water, out of the water,’ and we’re like, ‘What’s that for?’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s ’cause of the oil.’”

Others at Hollywood Beach, Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton and Pompano Beach noticed the tar balls, though they were less pervasive and didn’t force closures.

Seth Platt, a Fort Lauderdale resident, told the Sentinel he was walking on the beach at sunrise Saturday when he felt something on the bottom of his foot.

When he got back to his car, he found out it was oil — and noticed “little blobs” everywhere, he said.

His kids — who took part in an elementary school-led beach cleanup that morning — saw the same thing.

“I warned them as soon as they got to the beach,” Platt said. “I said, ‘Hey guys, there’s tar everywhere, don’t touch it.’ But they all came back with tar all over their feet.”

It’s unclear where the pollutant came from, although Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis and other officials believe it could be from a nearby tanker.

The tar balls were more of a litter problem than a health hazard, Trantalis said. But the beaches would remain closed until the oil slick disappeared.

Aside from the random oil plugs, the beach remained “beautiful,” Frank Guzman, a spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue. 

“There’s no visible signs of anything unless you step in it,” he said.