OCEAN CITY, Md. - Beachgoers who have come to Ocean City's beaches for years are accustomed to seeing sea grass wash ashore from time to time. What they aren't used to seeing is seeing grass wash in and forming a line two feet deep up and down the shore.
That's what happened Wednesday along the beach starting near 90th street and stretching to the Delaware state line.
Bob Knappman and his wife were visiting Ocean City from Pennsylvania and started watching the surge as it came in on Wednesday.
"You could see it coming in, this brown color on the waves, and then just flooded the whole beach with it," said Knappman.
"First it looked like oil in the water, coming up and then just like big long piles of straw," said Anthony Wicks from upstate New York. "That's what I thought it was."
Crews from the town of Ocean City worked overnight into Thursday to rake the grass into piles and away from the most heavily used portions of the beach.
The consensus of many sources that looked at the grass is that it's Phragmites grass which is an invasive species. Some speculate the large amount of grass may be the result of someone clearing it out of a pond or marsh and letting it wash out to the ocean.
Beachgoers are being advised to avoid walking on the grass since it could contain sea life or other hazards.
