Blobs of tar washing up on La Jolla-area beaches are a source of curiosity – and some concern – among some locals, worried that they may be residue from the Santa Barbara oil spill.
“It really started making me think if it’s all connected and it, you know, had something to do with [the spill], it’s just eventually making its way down the coast,” said Carmel Valley resident Sarah Eberhardt.
Recently, she has been seeing the gooey, sticky balls that smell like gasoline wash up at Torrey Pines State Beach and farther south.
So she sent NBC 7 pictures of the black matter, along with her concerns for marine life.
We took the photos to Neal Driscoll, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who said there is no need to worry. The blobs are most likely natural tar balls that seep out of oil reserves stored in oceanic rocks and float onshore – unrelated to the oil spill.
Although they are far more common near Santa Barbara and Ventura, Driscoll said they’re not uncommon in the San Diego area, and he has seen an increase over the last few months here.
Relieved, Eberhardt told NBC 7 she was probably being extra sensitive because she saw the harm caused by the Santa Barbara oil spill a week after it started.
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“They were making pretty good progress, trying to clean it up, but it was a mess and it was really sad to see a lot of the damaged plant life and sand,” she said. “And I think it’s probably going to be a while before those beaches are pristine again.”
Driscoll said the chances of that oil moving down to San Diego are pretty slim, but he is glad people like Eberhardt are being observant and questioning.
