Unidentified balls... "TWOONG"...What's wrong with the beach in Australia?

[Anchor]
Nine beaches were closed after unidentified bead-shaped objects flooded Sydney Beach, Australia.

Last year, a black ball-shaped object washed up and people were very surprised.

Why does this keep happening?

Reporter Yoon Hyun-sook reports.

[Reporter]
A beach in Sydney, Australia, famous for its blue waves and wide white sand.

This place, which used to be crowded with summer vacationers, has been completely closed.

This is because a bunch of unknown ball-shaped objects washed up on the white sand.

They vary in size, from nail-sized to bead-sized, but have similar white round shapes.

Australian authorities temporarily closed nine beaches where white balls were found and launched a major cleanup.

[Suhins / Mayor of Northern Beach, Australia: For now, we are preventing people from coming for safety. We are waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to tell us what these balls are and if they are safe.

Earlier in October last year, thousands of sticky, smelly black balls washed into Sydney Beach.

Initially, it was predicted to be a "tarball" made by an oil leak marine accident, but the analysis results were different.

It turned out to be a lump of oil and sewage debris, so-called oil iceberg (Patberg), which is unusual to be found on a beach rather than a dirty urban sewer.

[Matthew England/University of New South Wales Professor] On an industrial scale, cooking oil or some kind of oil has been dumped into the sewage system, and it appears to have been coagulated and made into tarball form.]

The research team found that the identity of the black ball was caused by sewage spills, but did not find a clear source.

I'm YTN's Yoon Hyunsuk.

Edit
video: Han Kyung-hee