FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Tribune News Service) — South Floridians enjoying a pleasant Saturday at the beach found themselves stepping in dark, greasy balls of oil, possibly because of a spill offshore, officials say. The Coast Guard is now investigating the source.

Reports of the tar balls extended from Port Everglades to Palm Beach, the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast said on X.

The agency is working with the Department of Environmental Protection and state officials in the investigation, a spokesperson said in an email. The Coast Guard sent an Air Station Miami plane and a boat from Station Fort Lauderdale out to “assess the scene and identify the source.”

Swaths of Fort Lauderdale’s beach were shut down to swimmers during one of the busiest days of the week because of pieces of oil washing ashore and oil slicks in the water, city officials confirmed.

The beach itself is still open, but no one was allowed into the water from lifeguard stations 1 to 16 until early Saturday afternoon, later reduced to stations 1 to 10, or from Port Everglades Inlet to Rio Mar Street, according to Frank Guzman, a spokesperson to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue. Fort Lauderdale has 20 lifeguard stations.

Hollywood’s beach is also seeing the tar balls, though the beach remains fully open, according to city spokeswoman Joann Hussey. So is Deerfield Beach, the city said on Facebook. Pompano Beach is monitoring them as well, though they’re “pretty sporadic,” spokeswoman Sandra King said. A Boca Raton beach-goer also reported seeing tar balls on South Inlet Beach in a post on Reddit.

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue initially received the call from a beach-goer around sunrise, reporting the tar balls and an oily substance in the water, according to Guzman.

As lifeguards with Fort Lauderdale Ocean Rescue got on duty, they too discovered the balls of oil on the sand, some of them stepping in the black, greasy substance.

Ocean Rescue notified the U.S. Coast Guard, which investigates oil slicks.

Seth Platt, a Fort Lauderdale resident, said he had gone on a sunrise walk on the beach Saturday when he felt something on the bottom of his foot, thinking it was dog poop. It wasn’t until he got back to his car that he discovered it was oil. There were “little blops of it” everywhere, Platt said, though when he returned to the beach in the afternoon, some of the tar appeared to have been cleaned up.

His kids had also participated in a beach clean-up with their elementary school that morning.

“I warned them as soon as they got to the beach,” Platt said. “I said ‘hey guys, there’s tar everywhere, don’t touch it. But they all came back with tar all over their feet.”

The tar balls are “more like litter than a health hazard,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis. He said the water will likely remain closed for the better part of the day, or “however long it takes for an oil slick to dissipate or to float somewhere else.”

It remains unclear what is causing the tar balls. Trantalis thought the oil could be from a nearby freighter or cruise ship. The Coast Guard Miami Sector did not immediately return emails or calls Saturday afternoon.

The situation is still unfolding, said Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman: “We’re waiting to see what they determine.”

Otherwise, Fort Lauderdale’s beach remained “beautiful” Saturday afternoon, Guzman said, with no sheen on the water or smell in the air.

“There’s no visible signs of anything unless you step in it,” he said.

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