Who knows what mysterious objects could wash up onshore? According to officials, thousands of blue rubber balls that washed up on British beaches originated from a power plant.
The Tees Valley Wildlife Trust wrote on Facebook about the incident. They said that the spongy rubber balls are normally used to clean pipes at the Hartlepool Power Station. When too much pressure builds up in the pipes, the balls can occasionally spill out into the sea.
“The balls are made of rubber and are not radioactive, but of course, they are still a danger to marine wildlife,” the trust said.
The trust is now asking members of the public to report locations where they discovered balls washing up on the beach. This way energy company EDF, which operates the power plant, can retrieve them in an efficient manner.
“EDF can deploy their clean up teams more efficiently acting on this info from the community,” the post read.