OCEAN CITY, MD/FENWICK ISLAND, DE/REHOBOTH BEACH, DE - Ocean City, Fenwick Island, and Rehoboth Beach officials are prohibiting ocean swimming after discovering medical waste washed up on coastal beaches, per the towns' social media pages.
According to a social media post on September 15th, Ocean City Beach Patrol has closed the ocean for swimming until further notice. Fenwick Island officials also announced their beaches were closed to swimming just after 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Ocean City officials say the situation is serious and ask everyone to adhere to the closure.
"We will work closely with the Worcester County Health Department and other public health authorities to investigate the source of the medical waste," Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald said. "Until we are confident that the situation is under control, we recommend wearing shoes on the beach and avoiding the ocean entirely."
Ocean City workers will continue to monitor and remove debris from the beach, the Town says. Fenwick Island officials confirmed the waste includes needles.
Maryland State Parks also announced Sunday Assasteague State Park was experiencing a large amount of medical waste washing ashore. Ocean access is restricted and no swimming, wading, surfing or other ocean activities are currently permitted, according to State Park officials.
Assateague Island National Seashore announced that The Chincoteague Public Beach in the Virginia unit has been added to the closure list as well. ALL ocean facing beaches at the Assateague Island National Seashore are now closed. An overview on current closures:
- North end (all of the island North of Assateague State Park) is closed to all visitor access
- Assateague Island State Park Beach is closed to swimming and wading
- All Oceanside Beaches in Assateague Island National Park are closed to swimming and wading. This includes North Beach, Oceanside Camping Beach, South Beach, the beach on the Oversand Vehicle Area and the Chincoteague Beach.
Sunday afternoon, the Dewey Beach Police Department announced that the town of Dewey Beach has temporarily closed the ocean for swimming.
On Monday, Sept. 16, Rehoboth Beach officials announced they were closing access to the ocean primarily due to rough surf conditions. Officials later stated that they found two exposed syringes with hypodermic needles along the beach. Several pieces of pill bottles and caps to medicine bottles were also found, according to Rehoboth Beach officials.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
