The South Carolina Ports Authority, along with a plastic pellet packager, has launched a cleanup of a large spill of tiny plastic pellets called “nurdles” on a Charleston beach.

The pellets, which are considered toxic, resemble tiny fish eggs or beads and were strewn in clusters along a beach on Sullivan’s Island. According to a report in The Post and Courier, the nurdles are the raw material used to make virtually every commercial plastic item in the market. They are a toxic petroleum product that can poison or clog the guts of marine animals.

The cleanup was launched while the Coast Guard and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control continues to try to pinpoint the source of the spill, the report notes.

The Post and Courier has more information:

Work crews — sometimes crawling on their stomachs — have been combing the beach since Saturday cleaning up a large spill of tiny plastic “nurdles” considered toxic.

The recovery was quickly put together by the State Ports Authority and a plastic pellet packager following a Friday report by The Post and Courier that a spread of the plastic pollution had washed up on the island’s beach.

The pellets resemble tiny fish eggs. They are strewn in clusters along the high water line at the west end of the island toward Fort Moultrie and Charleston Harbor.

Read the full article here.