Tar in the ocean?
 

A few years ago, we stayed at a small resort in Pompano Beach. There was a place to scrub off "tar" that got on your feet in the ocean...what is it and where does it come from? We liked the beach area and are considering going back there over Easter. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure what that "stuff" is, but I had a similar experience at Jekyll Island, GA about 14 years ago. We were there after some particularly bad storms had passed through. I thought it might have something to do with an old oil spill or something. Needless to say, it "spoiled" my opinion of the beach there and I've never been back.

DD

Tar balls, anywhere from an inch or two in diameter, come from oil-rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and are carried by the Gulf stream to beaches. It generally congregates on the Atlantic beaches, I don't know exactly why but it is more prevalent there than on the Gulf coasts. I don't know if I've ever seen the tar scrubs on the Gulf. Perhaps the Atlantic Ocean currents, fueled by easterlies, wash it ashore.

Although you end up with it on your feet, pity the poor sea turtles that end up with it occluding their nostrils and beaks. It kills them.

Although it's been years, I used to occasionally get tar on my feet at Holden Beach in North Carolina. We used white gas (like for a Coleman stove) to clean it off, which worked fine. I was told at the time that tar deposits naturally occur on the ocean floor -- similar to tar pits on land, I guess -- and small balls of tar make their way to beaches. I guess oil spills could contribute too, however.

I have been to visit my brother many times - who lives in that general area of Florida. Only once did I experience this same "tar" - was told it came from tankers/leakage/spills - but the oil rig theory sounds plausible, too.

Tgirl is correct. I've seen them on the Gulf occasionally, especially when they are renourishing (dredging the sea floor). Here's an explanation:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/law/BER/TarBalls.htm

As a long time resident of the Florida panhandle, I can say I have encountered tar in the gulf many times. In fact we used to keep a container of mineral spirits and a rag on the porch of the beach house we stayed in for the purpose of removing tar from our feet. Of course it will also ruin a bathing suit if encountered while swimming. Interestingly enough, now that I am thinking about it, I can only recall the tar problem at one of the panhandle beaches I go to. I have never noticed it at any other.

Sunshinesue, which beach was that? I'm curious. We barely ever encounter tar in the St. Pete area.

Of course, if we stopped drilling for oil in the Gulf, we'd probably get rid of most of the tar. But we'd be increasing our dependence on foreign oil.

Growing up on the Texas Gulf Coast, I agree that I've had my fair share of tar on my feet and/or swimsuit. I had no idea that the Atlantic beaches have a worse problem, though.

I think that all of the explanations given above for tar in the ocean or on the beach are quite plausible, and it's worse at certain times than others.

I've lived on the beach on the southeastern coast of SC for the past 20 years and I've never seen tar.

Not saying it doesn't happen, I've just never seen tar.

From my understanding, it comes from the off shore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Not that they leak but some other reason.

I used to run into tar on the beaches in New Jersey on rare occasions. Supposedly it was from oil tankers flushing their tanks offshore. I haven't seen it in many years, so I suspect better regulations have elimiated the problem.

Some tar balls come from oil spills, and persist in the ocean for decades. A storm off the east coast of Florida, for example, may wash up tar balls that originally came from oil spilled and burned when a tanker was torpedoed off the coast by u-boats in WWII.

Tandoori Girl, Mexico Beach is where I have seen more tar than anywhere else along the eastern panhandle. Mexico Beach is located just east of Panama City. I do not know of tar being a major problem anywhere else from Aligator Point to Destin, but it seemed to be present every summer at Mexico Beach. I haven't spent much time at the beaches west of Destin so couldn't say about them.

The oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico is what most of you are referring to. If you recall, President Bush wanted to allow more oil rigs to be placed nearer to the Florida Gulf Coast. The fine citizens of FL and the president's brother Jeb, actually put a halt to those efforts.

*applause, applause*

I have traveled all over the Florida and Texas coasts. I have never seen tar on the Atlantic Coast (maybe once?), and seldom anywhere on the Florida Gulf Coast.

But Texas has it the worst.

My oceanography teacher at University of Houston explained the Gulf currents. Simply put, the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. That water, and other Gulf recirculated water, turn in a counter-clockwise motion throughout its large body.

For instance; the beaches in Galveston, where I lived for six years, have it worse than say South Padre Island. The water has been filtered slightly more the further south in Texas you travel. The deposits are left on the more-northern shores.

The water current continues its counter-clockwise flow up the FL coast, so that the Naples area will have even cleaner water/beaches than the Texas beaches had. You travel further up the Fl coast, and Clearwater will have even better beaches, then Panama City even better than that, etc.

You can certainly observe the huge difference in those beaches of the upper Gulf Coast of FL. They are spectacular! That is because the water has been filtered through the natural current motions during its normal cycles.

I live on the central coast of CA and I was just at the beach today...in Carpinteria you can see the natural asphalt seeping from the bluffs...it has nothing to do with oil rigs as it was there long before the Industrial Revolution...THe Chumash Indians use to use it to line their canoes, among other things. No worries...annoying, but not an enviornmental disaster.

The "tar" on Jekyll is not an oil spill. It is silt from the marshes and it gets stirred up more when a storm passes.

While in the Navy stationed in Bermuda back in 1972-73 I volunteered to work at the Bermuda Biological Station weighing tar balls. Work was being done by Harvard prof and I eventually saw it published in Scientific American! We all had special blankets to take to the beach - our tar blankets. I even used to take pics of the tar stains on the rocks as "art" in B&W. Bring some lighter fluid to get it off your feet.

Gimmeabreak, doh! There are no oil rigs off the coast of California. You're in tar pit country there, we aren't. We have tar balls from oil rigs and that's the scientific truth. It is natural, just as natural as oil and gas. But it's being unnaturally put into the Gulf of Mexico and then washed onto our beaches.

"There are no oil rigs off the coast of California." Maybe in some perfect alternate universe there aren't.

Drilling new offshore wells has been banned, but existing wells are still there and operating. The last new ones are only about 10 years old.

I was born in San Diego and live in West Palm Beach, FL. There is tar in both places. How can you say there are no oil rigs of California coast? Who doesn't remember the Exxon Valdeese? Lestoil can help if it gets on your suit.

OK, I guess I was wrong about rigs in CA. Although I thought the Valdez was a ship. It is interesting how the tar is not on the FL Gulf coast. I guess we should be touting that to the tourists. Tar free beaches, come one, come all. Get it while it's clean...

Remember during Dubya's first term, he desperately wanted oil rigs in operation off the coast of FL? The many fine 'Blue' citizens (although, unfornutately not a majority of FL's population, lol) put pressure on brother Jeb to stand up to his older & dumber brother and "just said no."

They equated beautiful beaches with FL tourism. They figured that oil rigs would would ruin the beaches, and hurt tourism and wildlife.

Amazing - another case of, "not in my backyard."

{Stand firm, Alaska!}

Valdez was a ship, out of Alaska - the spill was in Alaska, not CA... I went to Juneau when they were starting the trial of the captain of the Valdez - talk about a lynch mob!!

As for Tar, I'm a FL native, go to the beach all the time (primarily Jax, and in the Panhandle - PC, Mexico Beach, Cape San Blas, etc) and I guess I have just been lucky because I have never once encountered the "tar"... sting rays, red tide, jelly fish, etc, but not tar...

No scientific basis for this, just a question, but wouldn't there be more of an instance of this type of thing near where the rigs are, which are LA and TX?? I know that there are some near FL too, but the majority are over there aren't they???

So, jhk3rd, you became a real 'tar heel'

I remember seeing tar balls on the beaches off L.A. in the 1940s. It was no big deal and the beaches were the most beeautiful I have ever seen..

I grew up in south Florida (Delray Beach, just north of Pompano) and encountered tar pretty regularly. I don't know where it comes from, but I can give you a non-toxic way to get it off. Mayonnaise, the full-fat Hellman's kind. Works like a charm.

I grew up in the South Bay area of L.A. in Southern California. For as long as I can remember, and as recently as last summer, tar is something we always watch for - it's not unusual to get it on your feet while at Manhatten, Hermosa or Redondo beaches. I don't remember ever getting any tar on us at the Orange County beaches (Newport, Huntington, Seal Beach) though.

Hey Gumboula, how old are you? I went to Carver Middle in Delray beach...

Lorrieishere,
No you didn't! I am 34, so I was at Carver from, I guess, 1982-1985.

I just turned 31, so we probably just missed each other. I went to Atlantic after that and graduated in 1992. What about you? Living in west Boynton now.

Lorrieishere,
I graduated from Atlantic in 1989. We were both there for a one-year window, maybe we met. My name was Lesley Williams (Reid now). My family still lives in Delray, so I visit frequently. I miss it, especially since the downtown is so much more active than it was when I lived there. I actually recommend it as a tourist destination now!

Your name doesn't sound familiar. My last name was Bayless and now it is Williams. I moved all the way from Delray to Boynton :) I love visiting my friends that live near downtown. It is a wonderful vacation spot if you are looking for a short getaway. I actually just booked a cruise that departs from Fort Lauderdale and the description of the port at Fort Lauderdale actually included a line "near the resort town of Delray Beach". When I was a kid you didn't want to be caught downtown after dark, and now you can barely find a parking spot. Lots of interesting restraunts and music clubs.

The resort town of Delray! Now that is great.

I was looking for something to top so we can fix this column and here's the tar thread. I had restrained myself, but here goes: I became known as "tarbutt" to my kids from having sat on a blob of tar when we were visiting the lovely beach at Santa Barbara. They still like to call me that to make fun of me. I had to throw out the pants I was wearing as it never washed out. People said it was from some natural phenomenon, but I was suspicious, as anyone might be with an unsightly black blob on their butt. And that's what I have to say about tar on beaches.
Anyone else find a thread to top?