Torres: Tar-like substance washes up on beach like the start of a horror movie | Opinion

Ever notice how the big summer blockbuster movie is usually a horror movie?

There must be something in our DNA that equates suntan lotion, swimming and barbecuing with wanting our adrenaline jacked up. Maybe it's just the freedom of summer that brings on the need to feel frightened. Personally, come autumn and winter and I'm a sucker for holiday movies. The sappier the better.

But, since we've just celebrated Independence Day, we are deep in the throes in the throes of horror movie season. Ever notice how a lot of them start with water? Whether it's the beach or a lake, there was "Jaws." "The Meg." "Summer Camp," "Friday the 13th" and "Cabin in the Woods," just to name a few.

Being a natural worrier and taking my obsession with horror movies into account, I wasn't surprised with my reaction to a press release issued by the city of Cape Canaveral late Thursday afternoon. But I was surprised that no one else seemed to react the way I did.

"The morning of June 29, 2023, the City of Cape Canaveral (City) was alerted to reports of a material spill of unknown type and origin on the beach in the vicinity of the Harrison Avenue public beach crossover," the press release began. "City Staff immediately coordinated with officials from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to assess and begin active monitoring of the situation."

Uh-oh. Immediately my eyes widened. Wasn't it time for Mulder and Scully to show up?

"Personnel from all parties were on scene by 9:30 a.m. to coordinate cleanup operations for a small, thin line of material running south to north in the low-tide area of the beach, between Harrison Avenue and Sailfish Avenue."

This doesn't sound normal, right? The press release went on to describe the "material" as "small black tar ball-like pieces of debris."

That's when the Coast Guard took control of the operation. (The military always gets involved, right?)

The press release concluded by saying the cleanup was complete and a flyover was conducted and nothing else suspicious was spotted.

I sent an email to a coworker.

"Isn't this the way most horror movies begin?" I asked her.

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The next morning I contacted officials with the city of Cape Canaveral to ask if the substance had been identified or if any particular agency was following up with trying to determine what it was.

OK, as you can probably guess, I've written this with tongue planted firmly in cheek. But ... a county that is 72 miles of coastline does not need unidentified crap washing up on our beaches. That is something we can all agree on, whether you're right-leaning or tilting left and whether you agree on nothing else.

Don't mess with our beaches.

I'm old enough to remember the summer of 1988 when New York-area beaches were closed because of disgusting medical waste washing up on the shore, including used syringes. Can you imagine? And that was smack-dab in the middle of the AIDS crisis. No one wanted to get pricked by a used syringe while enjoying a day at the beach.

Syringe Tide, as it became known, was caused when landfill workers took a shortcut and decided to dump the medical waste in the ocean. Since then, accords have been signed, legislation passed and more people are watching.

Yet, like the horror movie monster, it keeps coming back.

Certain beaches in the New York area were closed because of medical waste ― including syringes ― washing up on the shore in 2018 and 2021. Here in Florida we have to deal with nasty red tide that scientists believe is caused by human waste.

Ugh. Maybe this really is a horror movie and all too predictably, the monster is us.

I did hear back from the folks at Cape Canaveral but only that nothing else was found and that filth that was found had yet to be identified. They told me to check with the Florida DEP. (Environmental writer Jim Waymer told me this has happened before. He wrote about tar that washed up in similar fashion in 2010)

In the meantime, enjoy your summer ― and let's keep our beaches clean.

Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at facebook.com/FTjohntorres.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Like a creeping move monster, goop washes up on Brevard County beach