It doesn’t matter what size the tar balls are—they have been showing up on the beaches at Galveston since time began, I should think. There are deposits of oil under the surface along the Gulf Coast. Sometimes, some of that oil bubbles up to the surface and land on the beach.
It’s as common as sand down there. No biggie!
“It’s as common as sand down there. No biggie!”
That’s what I couldn’t figure out. I saw pea- to lima bean-sized oil globs on the beach at Cape May NJ—not EVERY time we went, but frequently enough to be memorable (my vague recollection is that stormy weather would kick them up). The point being that if an oil spill occurred, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish the blobs that were naturally occurring from the ones specifically attributable to the spill.
That said, it would be rare to see golf-ball-sized blobs and you wouldn’t get covered in oil while swimming. The only way these could affect you is if you stepped on one and it would be like stepping in soft asphalt (i.e., needing turpentine if you wanted to remove the black mark immediately).