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tion myth and describes them as made of vegetation such as sea grass or dune grass mixed with fishing line, snail egg casings, pine needles, seaweed or twigs. The “Betsy balls" displayed at the Audubon Nature Center formerly located east of New Orleans are composed of compacted and woven marsh grass and are named for the 1965 hurricane that made landfall at the mouth of the Mississippi River (Audubon Nature Institute 2004). Finally, Ebbesmeyer (2004) called the thousands of green globs resembling Brillo® pads washed ashore at Plaice Cove, New Hampshire, in June 2002 “sea knitting.” He speculated that heavy rains washed nitrates and phosphates from sewage and fertilizers into the ocean, creating an explosion of seaweed growth, and pulsating wave and currents knitted the balls, which consisted of seaweed, sand, and shell fragments (Ebbesmeyer 2004).
Hurricane Ball Natural History
A number of scientists and others report finding hurricane balls such as those seen in Figure 1 during the months following extreme weather events. Along the Mississippi and Louisiana coast and barrier islands, hurricane balls are round or egg-shaped and composed of plant materials such as marsh grasses (Spartina spp. and Juncus roemerianus) and pine straw formed around a core of plant fibers, roots, or occasionally small pieces of storm debris. The wave and wind action forms a very complex woven structure with plant fibers laced into a sturdy and durable spherical or elliptical object and they can vary in size (Figure 1A and B) but when lifted, they all sprinkle sand.
The formation of hurricane balls was early on speculated to be due to wave action in shallow water on both lake and coastal shores (McAtee 1925). Croneis and Grubbs (1939) compared the formation of siliceous nodules found in the Niagaran dolomite quarries to that of modern “sea balls” and “lake balls.” They postulated that the “rolling action of the submerged portions of waves upon the fibrous sub-
stances resting lightly upon sandy bottoms” resulted in the genesis of lake balls or sea balls, and while the organic material of the balls may differ, the physical conditions of their formation are similar.
The formation of two sea balls found along the Florida Gulf coast (Olson 1957, 1963) was presumed to be due to wave conditions which tend to work the plant mass into a compact ball-like form. DeVries (1969) speculated that the “spheroidal to ellipsoidal accretionary bodies” composed of dead salt-marsh plants found along groins and jetties in Gulfport, Mississippi, following Hurricane Betsy were formed by heavy surf activity that rolled the floating marsh grass debris into spherical and ellipsoidal masses.
Following Hurricane Camille, GCRL geologist Walter Siler (Figure 2A) found numerous “drift balls” on the shores of Horn and Ship Islands, two barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi, and described them as “accretionary masses of debris formed in very shallow water as a result of wave or current action.” Dubuisson (1970) stated that Siler believed the drift balls were composed of marsh grasses from the Louisiana marshlands near Breton and Chande-leur Sounds. These drift balls can be carried by waves and tides throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico with many being concentrated on Mississippi’s barrier islands (Figure 2B). Local science educator Leona M. Clawson found about 1,500 hurricane balls along the Mississippi coastal beaches and barrier islands during the months following Hurricane Camille. She set forth a “McCaughan Theory” to describe the mechanical motion of water within waves and their role in forming these objects (Clawson 1998).
Hurricane Balls, Marsh Health, and Barrier Islands
Hurricane balls have been considered to be a negative indicator of marsh health and a warning sign that wetlands and marshes are in distress (Audubon Nature Institute
Figure 2. A. Former Gulf Coast Research Laboratory geologist Walter Siler examines a Hurricane Camille ball. B. Many hurricane balls (sizes not availableI washed ashore on Ship Island fallowing Hurricane Camille.