Thousands of blue balls wash up on beaches after fierce storms batter UK

20 November 2023 , 15:09

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More than 1,000 balls have been found in the space of four days (Image: Tees Valley Wildlife Trust /SWNS)

People have been left baffled after thousands of blue balls mysteriously washed up on UK beaches - with wildlife experts claiming they could pose a "serious" risk to the environment.

The rubber-type balls have been spotted on shorelines across the North East in the Tees Valley in recent days. Residents said they have been hurling them back into the water in response.

They suspected the peculiar balls were brought in by the fierce storms that have battered parts of the UK. But experts at Tees Valley Wildlife Trust revealed the balls are used to clean the system's pipes at Hartlepool power station.

Wildlife experts said the balls can be a harm to the environment (Tees Valley Wildlife Trust /SWNS)

It has been reported that they have been called Taprogge balls' after the manufacture. The spheres are rarely released into the sea, but sometimes they need to be dumped if there is a sudden build-up of pressure. EDF, which operates the power station, claim there hasn’t been a release leading many to suspect strong winds and currents are to blame.

While the balls are biodegradable, it takes two years for them to completely degrade, potentially posing a threat to local wildlife. Wilder Coast Officer Jacky Watson from Tees Valley Wildlife Trust said: “My aim of the project is to get people to do what they can do to help stop pollution in the sea. The little blue balls are made of natural rubber, they’re used to scrub the pipes of the Hartlepool power station in the cooling system. The cooling system uses sea water and they have to blast the pipes to remove sea creatures.

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“They do this every week, they go through with the balls. It’s a closed system and the balls shouldn’t escape. Now and then there’s an incident and they do escape. If there’s too much pressure they get released, and they go into the river and the sea. They are natural and will biodegrade but are still a hazard. They’re supposed to biodegrade in two years, but it’s still a long time.

“We’ve got a very old nuclear power station, it’s around 40 years old. We still want to do something about it, along with a lot of beach cleaning groups along the coast. They’ve been picking them up. I contacted EDF and I found their environmental compliance manager was interested in talking to us.”

Jacky and her team have been asking the public for their help, using the locations of ball discoveries to pinpoint their movement on a map.“We put the word out locally if people found the balls, they could let us know and EDF with the what3words," she added.

“What they didn’t realise is how far south they’re going. There’s a nice map now to understand where the current is depositing the balls. I’ve had reports of over 1,000 balls from just these last few days. The last few days the storm has disturbed a deposit of balls on the seabed somewhere. We think they’ve been brought up all together. They think they’re historic. If balls are released it is very serious.

“There were some releases about a year ago and there was a detailed report done. They’re found in small numbers on a regular basis, mainly one or two. The community have got involved, people really get into it. Over the last few days it’s gone nuclear. It’s important to show that you can communicate with these large companies.”

Monica Charsley