Hundreds of tires emerge from ocean off NC and float ashore. How did they get there?

It’s not unusual for oddities to wash out of the ocean off North Carolina, but one town is dealing with what amounts to an onslaught of vintage tires.

Holden Beach Mayor J. Alan Holden says about 1,000 tires have appeared on the town’s beaches after a two-day coastal storm churned the Atlantic Ocean.

Video show tires dotting the shore like seashells, some lodged in the sand and others washing back and forth in the surf.

Where did they originate?

Holden Beach officials say it’s likely they’re pieces of an artificial reef constructed decades ago by the state.

The project was part of a failed plan to create new fishing grounds, N.C. State University reports. It’s estimated 650,000 tires were dumped off the coast from 1975 to 1983, the university says.

“It seemed like a great idea at the time, because tires break down slowly,” N.C. State wrote in 2011. “But those road-worn tires outlasted the chains and cables anchoring them to the bottom.”

Tens of thousands have since rolled out of the ocean, including 28,000 that appeared after Hurricane Bonnie in 1998, officials say.

“We are working to get these hazards off the strand,” Holden Beach officials wrote in a Dec. 18 Facebook post. “However, it may take a week or more to remove what’s there already with more possibly showing up over the course of the next several days.”

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries led the cleanup effort, and reports it collected all 1,000 tires on Tuesday, Dec. 19, and took them to a landfill.

Another 600 tires were collected from Bogue Banks in Carteret County on Wednesday, Dec. 20, officials said.

“There were a couple of dozen tires that staff could not reach because the tide came in. Staff will collect them tomorrow (Thursday),” the division reported.

“DMF will continue to monitor the beaches over the next few days to collect any tires that the tide brings in,” officials said.

Images of the tires have been widely shared on social media, horrifying some and intriguing others.

“Dang I could have gotten some tires if I went shelling today!” one person wrote.

“Some have crabs inside so you could really get hurt,” another posted.

This story was originally published December 19, 2023 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Hundreds of tires emerge from ocean off NC and float ashore. How did they get there?."