Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images One time when I was at the beach, I accidentally discovered balls of oil near the sand. At the time, I thought it was terrible. But it could have been so much worse.

Scientists have solved the mystery of sticky black balls that began washing on beaches in Sydney, Australia last month. Thousands of the strange balls first began appearing in mid-October, including at the city's famous Bondi Beach,

The mystery of the black balls that washed up on some of Sydney’s most iconic beaches last month has now been solved – and it’s more disgusting than you could ever imagine.