MYSTERIOUS BLACK BALLS RETURN TO A SYDNEY BEACH
- Several balls have washed up on Silver beach
- Similar debris closed seven beaches in October
- READ MORE: Huge change coming for some of Australia's best beaches
Health officials will probe whether the arrival of a new batch of black tar-like balls on a Sydney beach are linked to previous contaminations.
Seven beaches including Bondi, Coogee and Maroubra in the city's east were closed after dozens of the mysterious balls washed up in October.
Tests found the balls were likely made of medications, human faeces, drugs and chemicals but experts were unable to pinpoint the source of the pollution.
On Tuesday, a small number of black balls were discovered by a member of the public on the eastern side of Silver Beach in the city's south.
Sutherland Shire Council immediately closed the beach and began cleaning up the white, green, grey and black balls which were a variety of shapes and sizes.
Officers from the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) collected samples of the debris which will be tested the samples from October.
'Sydney Water officers found a small number of balls across Botany Bay at Dolls Point Beach, which were immediately cleaned up,' EPA said in a statement.
'Officers from the EPA, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Sutherland Shire Council have inspected nearby beaches, without finding any further debris.
'This is a much smaller event than the incident in Sydney's eastern suburbs in October, with fewer balls over a smaller area.'
The EPA is still awaiting the results from samples of similar balls that washed up on Bombo Beach, on the NSW South Coast, two weeks ago.
Those samples - and the balls found on Silver Beach - will be tested against the debris found across several major Sydney beaches in October.
Read more 2024-12-05T05:48:09Z