Thousands of tiny polystyrene, or commonly known as styrofoam, balls were found covering a beach on Tahoe's north shore on Thursday.
According to reporting by South Tahoe Now, Alison Toy, the education program manager for UC Davis' Tahoe Environmental Research Center, was strolling on Moon Dune beach when she came across the fish-egg sized balls covering the sand and floating in the water.
"After being totally devastated, my first thought was, I need to sound the alarm right away," Toy said. Toy then took photos and video of the scene and posted them on her Instagram account. "The response I got from people on Instagram was immediate and overwhelming. Dozens of people were outraged and wanted to help."
Toy’s post caught the attention of several groups as well, including the League to Save Lake Tahoe, Keep Tahoe Blue and the popular I Love Lake Tahoe Facebook group. Volunteers soon arrived at the beach and were able to clean the balls up with all types of tools, such as rakes, colanders, sieves and trash bags, in a matter of hours.
The likely culprit for the environmental disaster appeared to be a broken pool floatie, a Big Joe pink butterfly "pool petz" flotation device. The instructions caution the toy is intended for use only in pools.
It's also sold online and at big-box retailers like Walmart and Costco. The League to Save Lake Tahoe has reached out to the company to flag the issue and demand greater responsibility in how their products are made, packaged and labeled. Staff also asked some Tahoe retailers to pull the product from shelves; Cox Family Stores has apparently done so.
Polystyrene is an extremely hazardous material for wildlife, it can be easily eaten by fish, birds and other animals, who can die after consuming too much.