‘Dozens along the beach': Locals perplexed as mystery green balls wash up on NSW beach
Mel Christensen took her dog to Culburra Beach, about 100km south of Wollongong, where she was greeted with dozens of the strange-looking, mosslike balls.
Green and velvety in appearance, the phenomenon littered the coast.
'We just headed to the beach for a morning walk this morning at about 8am and noticed dozens, and dozens of balls along the beach,' Ms Christensen said.
'And of course, my dog ran for one only to discover that they weren't actually tennis balls.'
The said her dog, Gypsy, 'was in doggy heaven' upon finding the mystery balls.
'On closer inspection, they were soft perfectly spherical and made of what felt (and looked) like moss.
'The strong southerly wind was blowing them up the beach and it looked kind of crazy with all these balls rolling around everywhere.'
Ms Christensen said the balls had spread almost a kilometre up the beach.
The balls are believed to be a phenomenon known as 'Neptune Balls', these ones being marimo — a rare velvety form of algae.
A local newsletter asked locals if they had seen the 'weird little moss balls' which it said are more commonly found in lakes and rivers in Japan and Northern Europe.
'But right now they can be seen on Culburra Beach.'
Ainu people in Japan hold a festival for the marimo moss balls each year at Lake Akan, a Japanese lake known for growing large marimo.
The mossy wash-up comes just months after the emergence of mysterious black balls, which closed nine beaches in NSW.
Following an extensive investigation from the state's Environmental Protection Authority they were revealed to be debris from nearby sewage networks.
'While we are yet to determine exactly what caused the pollution incidents to occur when they did, we can say the composition and the characteristics of the debris balls are consistent with a land-based sewage source,' EPA director operations Adam Gilligan said at the time.
The balls first appeared in Sydney's eastern suburbs in October last year, but an expanded investigation was launched as they started popping up on the state's south coast and northern beaches.
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