Powerful swells driven by recent storms amid a growing El Niño are warming ocean waters, causing sand erosion and drawing animals rarely seen to California’s shore.
But Ventura County officials were not expecting the unusual ocean conditions to also bring to a local beach a “bomb-like” marine marker.
A Navy MK25 phosphorus location marker is used to create a visible smoke and flame signal to locate objects or people in the water.
It’s unclear where the marine marker came from or the exact location of its discovery last week. The sheriff’s department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s bomb squad published an Instagram post about the discovered marker. In the comment section of the post, the Orange County Bomb Squad said the recent storms could have caused the marker to surface, because “we’ve had a couple wash up in recent weeks.”
“A concerned citizen noticed the marker at the waterline and out of fear for the safety of other beachgoers, decided to take the marker home and call law enforcement,” the post stated.
The Sheriff’s Bomb Squad and Navy explosive ordnance disposal unit from Point Mugu responded to the Ojai residence where the device was taken.
Officials said in the post that the resident’s actions were well intentioned; however, “marine markers, even if wet and expended, are extremely dangerous. Residual phosphorus can dry out once removed from the water, then spontaneously reignite or explode when moved.”
Marine markers can burn up to 3,000 degrees and are extremely toxic, officials added.
It was not the only unusual discovery attributed to the latest ocean conditions.
During the summer, the sheriff’s bomb squad and the naval explosive ordnance disposal unit also responded to the beach to pick up a much more hazardous item, a Super Bazooka round.
In July officials responded to Mugu State Beach Tower 14, within Point Mugu State Park along Pacific Coast Highway, to assist state parks police and lifeguards with a “piece of 1950’s era military ordnance that had washed up on the sand,” according to an Instagram post.
Sheriff officials said prior to becoming a public beach, that stretch of sand was used as a training facility for the United States military.
“As tides change and sand erodes over time, it is common for military ordnance to reveal itself at this location,” the post stated.
Officials determined the item was a Super Bazooka round that still contained live explosives and was too dangerous to transport at the time.
“The beach and Pacific Coast Highway were momentarily shut down while the ordnance was disposed of in place,” the post stated.
Ventura County’s bomb squad warned if anyone comes across an item that looks like a bomb or other piece of military equipment, they should leave the item in place, evacuate the area and call 911.
In August, sand erosion exposed a pair of jetties that were built decades ago to stop beach erosion and protect oceanfront homes near the entrance of Newport Harbor.
Within the waters that surround Malibu Pier a hammerhead shark, which typically prefers warmer waters than those found in Southern California, was spotted making a few circles in the ocean.
In a historic first, two olive ridley sea turtles crawled out of the sea within the second week of September and laid their eggs in pits of sand in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. The turtles are normally found throughout tropical regions of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, with large nesting populations in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
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