AUSTRALIA: Last month a bunch of sticky dark blobs washed up on Sydney’s beaches much to the bafflement of locals and scientists alike. After some research and investigation, it has been discovered that the blobs were, in fact, a gross combination of human faeces, cooking oil, chemicals and illicit drugs.
The black deposits started to appear on October 16 and resulted in eight beaches in the area closing down, including the famous Bondi Beach. Chemists have determined that the balls were the result of a sewage spill although where the spill came from is still not known.
According to a BBC report, each ball had a firm surface and was made up of all kinds of things from cooking oil to soap and scum molecules to blood pressure medication to pesticides, hair, methamphetamine and veterinary drugs.
In an interview with 9News, lead investigator Associate Professor Jon Beves from the University of New South Wales said, “They smell absolutely disgusting, they smell worse than anything you’ve ever smelt.”
In conclusion, the balls are a mix of compounds consistent with human-generated waste.
They are not natural, or the result of an oil spill.
They are consistent with the types of waste found in a domestic sewer.
This is also really obvious when you smell them – disgusting! pic.twitter.com/XrJJYZBZL8— Jon Beves (@JonBeves) November 7, 2024
Professor William Alexander Donald, a chemistry professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said they look like fat, oil and grease blobs, which are often called fatbergs.
“When we’re doing the testing, these balls smell worse than anything you’ve ever – at least for me, worse than anything I’ve ever smelled before. This is a hugely complex analytical challenge where we’ve detected hundreds of different molecules and components in these blobs,” he said in an interview with NBC News.
Donald said that this combined with other recreational drugs and industrial chemicals pointed to sewage and other sources of urban effluent.
Scientists say this is not the first time this has happened, with unconfirmed reports of smaller but similar balls washing up on the beach in the last two years. Sydney Water has reported that there are no known issues with waste systems in the city.