La. Officials: 8-Inch Tar Balls Washed Up on Beach

Louisiana wildlife officials say workers have found huge tar balls littering the beach at Port Fourchon, some of them 8 inches across.

Laura Deslatte, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said Friday that the glossy globs of oil were found along the entire beach at Port Fourchon. Workers from her department have not yet seen so much oil washed up anywhere else.

A news release said that on Thursday, biologists found about 25 nickel-sized tar balls per square foot from the beach's southwestern end to its midpoint.

They also found more than a dozen tar balls on the banks of Belle Pass, a few hundred yards north of the waterway's mouth.

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On the Net:

Photos of tar balls on Port Fourchon: http://bit.ly/9SUWGG