The Coast Guard is awaiting tests to determine the source of some small tar balls that were found at three beaches Thursday on the Leeward coast.
The Coast Guard received a call about the tar balls at Makaha Beach before dark on Wednesday and went out to investigate the following day, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
Chief Petty Officer John Ng said a Coast Guard team found tar balls at Makaha, Maili and Pokai Bay beaches and found tar balls at all three locations.
He said the team walked along Makaha Beach and found sporadic patches of tar balls, all less than an inch in size, along a 1,000-yard stretch of beach.
The investigating team collected samples at all three of the beaches and sent them to a Coast Guard lab in Connecticut, where they will be compared with other samples in an attempt to identify the source of the oil.
Ng did not have details on the tar balls at Pokai Bay or Maili, but the amount of tar balls appeared to be minimal and all three beach samples amounted to less than a quarter of a cup.
Ng said the Coast Guard didn’t inspect other beaches in the area.
He said there is no immediate health threat because no oil was seen on the water by the response team.
The source of the tar balls was not immediately known and they could have either been deposited recently or sitting there for a while, Ng said.
He said that tar balls could be created by a spill or oil seeping from the seafloornatural ocean seeps.
The Coast Guard notified the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Health.
A DLNR spokeswoman said a state aquatic biologist checked Makaha Beach and did not find any tar balls. She said DLNR is investigating whether the tar balls posed any hazard to marine life and did not find any dead animals.
A Health Department spokeswoman said the agency will assist the Coast Guard if requested.
Ng urged the public not to touch the tar balls and to call the National Response Center at 800-424-8802 if they are found.
The Coast Guard also urged the public to wash with soap and water if one should come in contact with tar balls.
