Volunteers Clean Up Toxic Mothballs on St. Pete Beach

0:00It's April 21st. Welcome in. This is Tampa Bay News today, where local news meets AI. Florida Fish and Wildlife officers found toxic mothballs dumped on St. Pete Beach on Monday near the sand dunes. These pesticide pack balls are deadly to animals and illegal to scatter outdoors. Now volunteers are hitting the sand to clean them up fast. Officials think someone left them there to scare off nesting black skimmers, those protected birds that belong on our shores. The poison could wipe out nests and mess up the whole ecosystem along Pinellas County beaches. Local folks like Sandy Dinn and her friend Karen Davis are out there bagging the balls one by one straight up furious. They call it murder on these beautiful birds and say just shift your beach chair temporary like instead of poisoning the spot. The FWC grabbed a bunch on Monday and is hunting whoever did this dirty deed. No arrests yet, but they're on it heavy. Meanwhile, Dinton and Davis vowed to keep scrubbing the beach clean, rallying the community to protect wildlife and keep those skimmers safe where they nest.