Hundreds of Tar balls Assault Windward Beach In Brick NJ
Posted by Alexander Higgins - July 10, 2010 at 3:08 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Loading ...I originally wrote about finding an unusually large amount of oil in the water behind my home and in the surrounding waters in Barnegat Bay, NJ back on May 22nd.
Since then I have continued to see oil in the water and have on occasion video taped it and taken pictures.
One example is this video taken July 7th 2010 which shows my lagoon filled with droplets of water and the oil floating to the surface from underneath the water.
The video above was taken at my house which I located on point A on the map below.
Yesterday I went to Summerfest at Windward Beach in Brick NJ.
Here is a map from my house (A) to Windward Beach (B).
Here is a view of Windward Beach in Google Earth.
Windward Beach, Brick NJ In Google Earth. Location Of the Brick NJ Tar Balls.
When I arrived at Windward Beach Park I went down to the shore I found I saw that the sand looked black, like it was being stained by oil.
I dug into the sand and found a layer of black sand that also appeared to be stained with oil a few inches beneath the surface.
I looked along the edge of the surf and saw what at first appeared to be blackened seaweed and pieces of wood.
I then though about all of the oil I have been seeing in the water over the last 2 months in NJ and decided to just make sure it wasn’t actually tar balls.
To my amazement that is exactly what was on the beach.
I went back to my wife and told her and she gave me a plastic bag to go collect some.
I brought them back and she recorded this video.
My wife and I then went back down the the beach and I recorded the light layer of oil washing on the beach and picked some new tar balls out of the surf.
I then discussed informing the police with my wife.
I thought about the story of tar balls in NJ hitting the paper and how devastating the consequence would be on tourism and local beaches.
Then I thought about how every day for two months I see oil in the water in my back yard and can’t stop myself from thinking its from the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
Then I thought about my son swimming in that water and ending up with cancer or some other kind of long term chronic health problems.
Finally I thought whether it is devastating to tourism or not millions of people should not be bringing there kids to the beach and swimming in this toxic mess.
I couldn’t live with myself knowing about this and not saying anything about it.
Finally I mustered up the courage to approach the police.
“Excuse me, do you have a minute?”, I muttered to the two officers on patrol. “You are probably going to think I am crazy but it looks like there are tarballs washing up down on the beach.”
I explained how at first it appears to be seaweed or wood but if you get down and look it is actually pieces of asphalt or tar crumbled up into balls.
The first officer responded “Who the hell knows what’s in that water down there. Maybe own of the marinas nearby is dumping crap into the water” and the other officer assured me they would go down and check.
I left the Windward Beach Park to go get some tea for my wife and coffee for myself.
I came back and gave my wife her coffee and open the bag of tar balls I found before.
I was going to show them to the police to make sure they knew I wasn’t crazy and took about half out of the tar balls out of the bag to keep some for myself in case the police wanted them to send them out for testing.
I went back to the two police officers I spoke to before and asked them If they saw what I was talking about.
“Yeah…. Well kind of…” responded the police officer.
“Well here let me show you”, I said as I pulled a tar ball out of the baggie in my hand.
I then showed it to the police and bent it back in forth and then cracked in half to demonstrate that it wasn’t a rock.
I proceeded to rub it along my fingers which left a greasy oily stain and the told the officers it is definitely a tar ball.
“Well does it smell like oil?” asked the officer. I put it up to my nose and smelled it.
“Yep. It smells like oil”, I told them. I then put in front of both of their noses and they both smelled it and concurred that I smelled like oil.
The officers then said we will let “recreation” know about it.
On my way home I thought to myself, “Let recreation know Why? Shouldn’t they be calling the DEP or the Coast Guard and finding out where it is coming from?”
Today I watched the video and uploaded them to YouTube.
When I viewed the video I realized that my wife had taken there was no video of the shore line and you really couldn’t make a conclusive determination that you where looking at tar balls or that they where even collected off the beach.
SO I went back to the beach today to get some video.
I noticed that “recreation” had done little more than rake up the tar balls I told myself as I walked up to the beach and looked at the fresh rake marks in the sand.
But it did little good because even more tar balls where washing ashore.
There where literally hundreds of tar balls on the beach so I took out my camera and started video taping as I collected more tar balls from the beach.
After I was done video taping I decided to start taking photos.
I collected more and more tar balls from the shore of Windward Beach until it started to get dark.
Then I thought to myself. “OK, they know these tar balls are washing up on the beach. They are all over the place. They are just cleaning them up and pretending like nothing is going. They are keeping quiet and not notifying the public.”
“I wonder what I will find along the beach where they are not cleaning up?”
I walked down to the beach to a secluded are of the shore line behind some woods.
I looked over and saw what looked like a tree stump sticking up out of the surf.
As I walked over to it I was amazed as I realized it wasn’t a tree stump.
What I had found was a monster tarball the size of my head.
I went home and laid the tar balls out on the table.
The large tarball was about 13 inches long, 6 inches wide and 4 inches high.
Video of tar balls collected from Windward Beach in Brick NJ.
Are These Tar Balls From The BP Gulf Oil Spill
The short answer is I don’t know… but they could be.
For starters check out this simulation of the spread of the oil spill which shows that BP Gulf Oil Spill making it to North Carolina almost a month ago.
Then there is the ROFFS independent oil spill tracking which has confirmed that oil from spill has already made its way up the entire East Coast of Florida.
The Federal Government won’t acknowledge that but there is also satellite images and even aerial photos which show oil in the Gulf Stream and the Florida Keys back in May.
And if you haven’t hear tarballs from the BP Gulf Oil Spill are now on two Texas beaches and then there are the massive amounts of tar balls hammering the East Coast of Central Florida.
So yes it is possible, very possible that these are from the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
But that doesn’t mean that they are.
We will just have to wait to find out and hope that the Government is more honest than it has been about many things like the water samples that don’t match up with independent tests and the safety of the Gulf seafood that we now know the Government is not testing for the neurotoxin pesticide dispersant Corexit.
Update: July 11th 5:50PM
There seems to be no desire to investigate this. I have informed my local newspaper the Asbury Park Press. The receptionist at the news desk said she would pass it along to a reporter who would contact me.
That was earlier this morning.
I have even submitted the story as an IReport to CNN and here.
I actually submitted to CNN in triplicate because the the form kept saying there was an error so I emailed the report using the IReport email submission process.
Still not a single email or phone call from anyone.
Maybe because its the weekend but we will have to wait to find out.
Update: July 13th 2010
Still nothing from the media or anyone else on this.
I have now reported it to NJ Senator Robert Menendez and hopefully that will get the ball rolling.
Readers who viewed this page, also viewed:
Has the Gulf oil spill hit NJ? Oil is washing up in the Barnegat Bay (Update 2)
TSA Police Beat Unsuspecting Girl At Airport Causing Brain Damage At Reagan National Airport
ROFFS Oil Tracking Shows BP Gulf Oil Spill Traveling Up Entire East Coast Of Florida
NOAA Says BP Gulf Oil Spill No Threat To Florida Keys But Aerial Photos Show Oil In The Keys- Chemtrail Activity Stops Globally on 10/10/10?
Massive Amounts Of Tar balls Cover Cocoa Beach And Cape Canaveral On The East Coast Of Central Florida
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OMG, You wrote that exactly like I would have been thinking! When I look at the oil gushing I think it could be BP. They are thinning it out so it makes sense it would spread faster and easier. I am assuming you had not seen this before the spill started. I think the Coast Guard is still trying to deny the oil in Texas is from BP so I'm not to hopeful about the government going anywhere near that!! I do know now if the Government says something is safe, you can bet it is not.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Grace Forman. Grace Forman said: RT @kr3at: Hundreds of Tar balls Assualt Windward Beach In Brick NJ http://bit.ly/9wCBY6 [...]
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Alex , have you contacted your local media outlets ? I would hope they would come and take a look , perhaps collect samples and do testing on what's washing up on your local beach .
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That oil probably isn't from the Gulf. If it is how could it have skipped my home state of Maryland and gone there?
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What makes you assume you would know it was happening in Maryland? The example is cocoa beach florida where local's are still refusing to accept the fact the oil is from the gulf until the test results are in but I say send these off to some experts, get in touch with some scientists down in the gulf who have samples of the gulf's tar balls and have him compare it
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Please wear some gloves!!!
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[...] This Video was taken on July 7th, 2010 behind my lagoon at 35 Perry Drive Brick NJ.It shows the water full tiny droplets of oil.The really weird thing is the oil is floating to the surface from under the water, for example around 2:40 in the video.As on past occasions the oil was in my lagoon, the next block over and even at the Mantoloking Bridge Miles away. This video was taken the day before I found tar balls washing ashore Windward Beach in Brick NJ.More on this story here: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010... [...]
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I live in the Panhandle of Florida and I have watched this whole thing slowly destroy something I love dearly. I have seen tar balls wash up on our beaches, and I took pictures of what looked me me like oil sheen. They are still telling people it is "safe" to swim and are encouraging people to come down here and eat the fresh seafood and swim in the water. The water is clear, but that doesn't mean that it's safe to swim in. With all the Corexit they are pouring into the Gulf, and this is a toxic chemical! The government is helping BP cover all of this up so they can all still make some money. It's really sad & sickening to me.
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I tend to believe the tarballs are coming from the gulf and following the gulf stream. Used to live in NJ and go to the beaches there all the time.Now in RI- the "Ocean State".
I suspect the Chesapeake Bay and LI Sound may be spared, but RI and Maine are going to get slimed sometime very soon. Excellent pictures!
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Ale , as I mentioned above , you should go to the media – have you contacted them ? If yes , which papers or stations ? Did they come out or just blow you off ? If the media covers the tar ill and oil sheens you are observing , the State and local officials will have to respond – BTW , have you contacted any representatives / officials from Gov Christie's office ?
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Found local news report (maryland), from when the oil first started entering Gulf Stream. Scientist interviewed predicted oil would reach MD by end of july, but stay mainly off shore unless a storm or hurricaine drove it inland. Perhaps oil is sitting out there right now and they're just reporting it. I hope Alex can get those samples analyzed ASAP. I wish I could help somehow.
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I was just wondering yesterday what had come of your report on the said oil in your bay.
Not that it was not evident from your first pictures, that it was indeed oil coming from somewhere. Maybe there has been oil leaking from the ocean bottom for longer than we know?
My husband says there was the old joke back in the 70′s ” There was a coin toss and NJ got the hazardous waste, and NY got the lawyers”…meaning NJ got the better deal because they did not get the lawyers! In all seriousness this was refering to the fact that NJ got dumped on years ago, and something got dumped off shore and has been washed back to shore now, or perhaps barrels are leaking? Stuff was suppose to be taken hundreds of miles offshore and dumped. My husband is a history nut with a mind like a vise. He remembers all of this going on back then. He said barges loaded with sealed drums of “something” and other hazmat was pushed by tug boats out of your coasts and dumped. He doesn’t remember if any of the stuff in the barrels was oil or not.
This is probably what those officers were referring to. The news used to be filled with pictures of these barges headed out to dump stuff off the NJ coast.
Just thought I’d bring this up, as it might be something to think about.
I am so sorry Alexandar about this. You were right to report it, despite what those officers may think, or the fact that tourism might suffer.
We know that same caution is not being taken in Florida and they are killing people down there with their yellow flags!
Please…suggest to your wife [ if those were her bare feet in the video] to wear some type of protection on her feet on your next outing.
Coming from Michigan, I did not wear shoes in the summer until I moved to the city at age 12, so I understand, I grew up on the water myself. However, her health, and health of possible future children are at stake now!
I grieve for the heritage we are losing in this country and for those losing livelihoods, homes, and health.
I hope you are able to get someone to listen…and don’t give up all of your evidence. Move some of it to a safe place…like a bank vault! Bad guys have broken into homes for less, even if they are available at the beach!
Thanks for bringing us up to date, and again, I am so sorry.
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[...] http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/10/tar-balls-assualt-windward-beach-brick-nj/ [...]
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My 2 cents.
Growing up in Key West, I saw many tarballs on the beach. The sources were either purposeful/accidental releases from operators in the G.o.M., or from natural seeps. The typical dark hard crude you will find washed up on a beach , for the most part, if it isn’t a heavier crude from Texas coast spills/discharges, is more of a type naturally produced asphalt, it is found at some deep ocean vents, and is directly related to volcanic sub-strata activity. Somebody brought me 2 samples last week. One is a jar of seawater with the Horizon deposit oil and one was of some of these tarballs that have started washing up. I have submitted them to an independent lab here in NC, and am waiting for results from Gas C and MS .
That said, the frighting thing that this reveals, is that if the natural asphalt seeps that accumulate on the ocean floor are getting dislodged in large amounts. That is a sign of ocean floor movement. You could compare this to paint on the surface of a piece of sheet metal.As you apply duress from the other side, the surface is deformed and causes the paint to chip and flake off. This is not good. This is really not a good sign, because it takes a lot to dislodge this stuff from the ocean floor. Even deep ocean currents that accompany hurricanes don’t usually bring this up in anywhere near the amounts we are seeing.
Keep up the great work.
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Of course the tarballs would be harder, and more like asphalt… they have been floating in the water, under the sun, hot (cuz they're black) evaporating the more aromatic and volatile compounds out of them the longer they are floating. From Deepwaterhorizon? Who knows at this point?
I wish the "when life gives you lemons…" thing applied here, but hey, you live in jersey, and compared to what I've had to smell driving through the state, tarballs would seem "par for the course."
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[...] by Alexander Higgins AlexanderHiggins.com [...]
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The family needs to get to a biohazard decontamination facility immediately after sticking their hands in the sand and holding the tar balls. They also need to get their health checked now on a regular basis for any anomalies.
Lady in Maryland-please look up the Gulf of Mexico gulf stream major and minor tributary maps to see how far this problem actually will stretch with the currents.
If the oil is known now to be in NJ and in North Carolina I'm pretty sure that if it's not in Maryland(keeping in mind that poured corexit can make it less visible for a time.) it will be. Soon.
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[...] by Alexander Higgins AlexanderHiggins.com [...]
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From merely looking at the pictures, I dont think your tarballs have anything to do with the BP volcano. I’ve always enjoyed beachcombing and can attest that there has always been crap like what you show on NJ beaches, though not typically as large as what you are showing. Another guy shows a video of darkish black sand mixed in with the regular beige sand, but again, I’ve always seen areas like that. Some of your pieces look like they weigh a few pounds, and they’d never condense in huge solid pieces in a NJ inlet far from the actual coast. They look like pieces from a torn up road. That said, I think the BP volcano is worse than what they are telling us, and the fact that people can be charged with a felony for photographing and getting to close to the clean up is traitorous. Whatever you do, don’t swim in the COREXIT tainted waters and don’t believe anything the public servants, I mean Authorities, tell you. They told Iraq vets that their anti-chem warfare vaccines were safe, now hundreds of thousands are sick with Gulf War Syndrome. Giuliani and Whitman told 9-11 clean up workers the air was safe to breathe. Now thousands have chronic lung illness. Doctors used to say smoking was beneficial and good for your throat. The list goes on an on.
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OMG! PLEASE STOP TOUCHING THAT CRAP WITH BARE HANDS/FEET! Imagine your skin as a few layers of fine mesh fabric, anything you touch will end up in your system.
Do you have that pile of tar in your house? It could be ultra-toxic and you may be breathing poison and contaminating your home with it.
I'd be quite concerned about the presence of corexit – look it up on the net to see how deadly it is.
Your tarballs might be laced with the stuff.
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Hoping the police, media or feds will do or even say anything about tar balls saturating the entire East coast is wishful thinking. They will continue to lie, deny and spin even as your kids are splashing around in surf the consistency of salad dressing. If BP and conspirators knew (and planned) for this disaster to occur, they are guilty of premeditated murder. Such criminals will not balk at lying through their oily teeth to cover up their crimes.
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I submitted a tip about your experience with a link to your website to kieth olberman's "countdown" ([email protected]). just a heads up. anyone else who reads this please feel free to also suggest they cover this. that ought to get things going….
sheesh.
oh and please wear gloves, mr. higgins!! we need you.
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Do you think your local university might be interested in testing some of these tarballs? A lab analysis is really the only way to confirm what they are.
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GLOVES! GLOVES! GLOVES! And get that stuff out of your house it is very toxic and can cause a wide variety of health problems.
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[...] this will raise awareness of the environmental problems that have previously been ignored. Lots more photos and videos inside the link from this New Jersey beach. | Facebook | Reddit | Digg | [...]
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For what it’s worth, every week, granted it’s nice weather, I visit the beach at Strathmere on the northern point of Sea Isle.
Just this past week while there with my mother and two sons, ages 4 1/2 and almost 15, we noticed to large piles of something. We didn’t even think about the possibility they may be something like what you’re witnessing but I stepped on one and it definitely gave and broke off a large chunk easily.
That’s as far as I know at this point. I honestly thought at first it was either a large rock or driftwood but it certainly wasn’t. I joked with my older son that it might be a large piece of compressed turd dropped from a commercial airline but again, it never occurred to me it might be a massive tarball.
I’ll check into this again this week when I’m down there and perhaps collect samples if there’s anything else like this when I go this week. I’ll also try the feeling my fingers, breaking it open to smell it, etc.
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Please do. I have checked more local beaches and found more black balls even on the Atlantic Coast.
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[...] Hundreds of Tar balls Assualt Windward Beach In Brick NJ | Alexander Higgins Blog. July 12th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments are closed | [...]
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[...] balls on Jersey shore http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/10/tar-balls-assualt-windward-beach-brick-nj/ [...]
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[...] I would be most grateful if someone could view these pictures and make an educated guess as to whether the tar came from Deepwater Horizon. New Jersey is a seriously polluted state, I should imagine there are other possible suspects. But the timing is disturbing.http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/10/tar-balls-assualt-windward-beach-brick-nj/ [...]
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Alexander, those tar balls appear weathered. New Jersey has been a dumping ground for chemical waste and trash for decades. This appears to be an unfortunate coincidence.
There is plenty of human poison there to account for your find.
You won’t have to wait long for the BP crud, though. It is in the Gulf Stream. Give it 18 months to circle the globe, and we will all have our share.
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[...] [...]
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Thanks for posting this online so we could find it and avoid planning a picnic to this park while on our out of state trip to NJ!
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Alexander: I can see from your web site that you are certain the tar balls you see are oil.
You will get more response and support from alternate news sources like coast to coast AM, and The Alex Jones Show. (infowars.com)
I believe the mainstream press and law enforcement are in full cover up mode, giving people as little information and help as they can.
Great work, by the way. Keep it up.
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You are so right John and one way they do this and a lot of people don’t realize is to block your new posts from coming up in alerts set up for the key words your post should pop up in by date. Those posts will be in the search results but they will not show up by date even if you should be high in search engine rank. It can be fixed but hard to detect. If you do a search for say “BP OIL SPILL” many negative posts that should be showing up don’t and a lot of the results are junk sites and sites that wouldn’t have that kind of search engine ranking. My site is primarily about another issue and I have to watch this all the time. This is documented info by the way. I post about the oil spill because I am a Gulf Coast resident but my time is taken up by my other key issues so I will post the link to posts on this site and a few others to help get the word out. If my posting a link to a post here about the oil spill with pop up in categories not related to oil spill but where I do have search engine rank then there are quite a few sites that have been tampered with.
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[...] of Tar balls Assualt Windward Beach In Brick NJ http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/201…each-brick-nj/ [...]
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I work for a nonprofit down here on the Gulf that has been working with the spill. I can get those tested by the university here (we have been doing these tests since day 1 almost). Send me an email and I will give you an address to mail a sample to. Thanks.
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[...] Hundreds of Tar balls Assualt Windward Beach In Brick NJ ©, . This copying or redistribution of this material requires that this license must remain intact [...]
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hello,
that oil mixed with corexite is very toxic. you better take precautions and not touch or keep it at home. if you get caner, here is a cancer cure: http://www.gerson.org
take care.
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[...] Read Entire Article and see more pictures and videos [...]
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[...] Hundreds of Tar balls Assualt Windward Beach In Brick NJblog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/07/10/tar-balls-assualt-windw… sent by Sparrows since 20 days 2 hours 8 minutes, published about 19 days 7 hours 32 minutes I originally wrote about finding an unusually large amount of oil in the water behind my home and in the surrounding waters in Barnegat Bay, NJ back on May 22nd. Since then I have continued to see oil in the water and have on occasion video taped it and taken pictures. One example is this video taken July 7th 2010 which shows my lagoon filled with droplets of water and the oil floating to the surface from underneath the water.tags: tar balls in nj, same man reported this may 22 1 commentscategory: Video karma: 123 13 buzzesclosed [...]
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They are not Easter Eggs, they are full of PAH's and will make you and your whole family sick, you brought them home ??? Gov. would seal your home and close off the whole block around you. oh IC, ur name is A H
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[...] Hundreds of Tar balls Assault Windward Beach In Brick NJ | Alexander Higgins Blog [...]
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[...] this will raise awareness of the environmental problems that have previously been ignored. Lots more photos and videos inside the link from this New Jersey beach. Read The Full Article: [...]
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[...] have been seeing tar balls since the end of May and posted a video about it when I found tar balls washing up on the beaches around Brick, N.J.BP turns out the lights as 'BOP' Monitoring shows largest leaks yet – video ~ link ~ Remember the [...]