Yorkshire beaches have been swarmed with peculiar tiny blue balls.
Over the last four days, in Redcar, Whitby and Saltburn, the shores have been awash with the sponge-looking balls. Beaches in Teesside have also been affected.
Hartlepool Power Station is the suspected source of the balls, with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust bosses saying they use them to clean certain stretches of pipework.
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Earlier this year, station director of EDF’s Hartlepool Power Station Mark Lees, said: “Occasionally, and under exceptional circumstances” some of the balls may be released into the environment. Now they’ve started being spotted by residents once again – although Mark previously confirmed they pose no risk and naturally biodegrade in seawater,” reports Teesside Live.
He added: “The balls are made from a natural sponge rubber which poses no risk and which naturally biodegrades in seawater. Sometimes tide patterns or weather events can wash older balls onto beaches. We take our environmental obligations very seriously and when we are made aware that balls have washed ashore our teams carry out beach walks to collect any that we can find.”
Social media reports suggest the balls have also been spotted at locations including Marske , Seaton Carew, South Gare and Skinningrove . Some people have even claimed to have been “collecting them for months” – with one person saying they’ve been “finding them for over 30 years.”
Although the balls are biodegradable, it takes two years for them to completely degrade.
Wilder coast officer Jacky Watson, from Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, said: “The little blue balls are made of natural rubber, they’re used to scrub the pipes of the Hartlepool power station in the cooling system. The cooling system uses sea water and they have to blast the pipes to remove sea creatures.
“They do this every week, they go through with the balls. It’s a closed system and the balls shouldn’t escape. Now and then there’s an incident and they do escape. If there’s too much pressure they get released, and they go into the river and the sea.
“They are natural and will biodegrade but are still a hazard. They’re supposed to biodegrade in two years, but it’s still a long time. We’ve got a very old nuclear power station, it’s around 40 years old.
“We still want to do something about it, along with a lot of beach cleaning groups along the coast. They’ve been picking them up. I contacted EDF and I found their environmental compliance manager was interested in talking to us.”
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Jacky and her team have been asking the public for their help, using the locations of ball discoveries to pinpoint their movement on a map. Photos show the collected balls in buckets. Jacky added: “We put the word out locally if people found the balls, they could let us know and EDF with the what3words.
“What they didn’t realise is how far south they’re going. There’s a nice map now to understand where the current is depositing the balls. I’ve had reports of over 1,000 balls from just these last few days.
“The last few days the storm has disturbed a deposit of balls on the seabed somewhere. We think they’ve been brought up all together. They think they’re historic. If balls are released it is very serious.
“There were some releases about a year ago and there was a detailed report done. They’re found in small numbers on a regular basis, mainly one or two. The community have got involved, people really get into it.
“Over the last few days it’s gone nuclear. It’s important to show that you can communicate with these large companies.”
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