A mysterious odor along the Northern coastline Sunday left many beachgoers perplexed with what could be causing the smell.
North County Dispatch received a flood of calls from people in Solana Beach, Encinitas and Carlsbad around 2:00 p.m. yesterday reporting a foul smell coming from the water.
Fire crews responded to the calls at Carlsbad beach but found nothing.
“It was just more like, 'Dude it stinks,'” said beachgoer Oscar Rodriguez. “It was just mostly like the surfers saying it just stinks because we were all in the water and it smelled really bad."
North County Dispatch said the stench is a natural occurrence that happens a few times a year. The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District Chief said they had a crew in Carlsbad to collect air samples for volatile levels of any hydrocarbons in the air but didn’t detect any unusual levels.
Most beachgoers were left scratching their heads, hoping the smell wasn’t a sign of something more toxic.
“It smelled like plastic, like burning plastic,” said beachgoer Paul Delgado. “Hopefully it's not toxic or dangerous, if we smelled it, you know.”
