EARLY swimmers were horrified to find a snowstorm of polystyrene balls strewn along a stretch of Port and Leighton beaches the morning after Australia Day.

As the indestructible beads lapped the water’s edge and a swathe of sand stretching half-a-kilometre, the swimmers gathered in force to clean them up, worried they’d otherwise make their way into the marine ecosystem, “including kids of five and six who said ‘this is not good because the fish will eat it’,” local Sue Harrington told the Herald.

Locals were quick to blame Salt on the Beach’s Australia Day Beach Party, which featured beanbags, but owner Ian Hutchinson says it isn’t so.

All his beanbags had been hired, were fully accounted for and had been returned undamaged.

“Over the course of [the day] there were numerous beachgoers [outside Salt’s fencing]…many with beanbags, chairs, disposable eskies and glass bottles,” he told the Herald.

Following the concert his staff did a clean up of the immediate area and, when the polystyrene beads were reported, were sent further afield.

“Our staff removed a large amount of public litter, including the empty skins of several beanbags,” he said.

by JENNY D’ANGER