Thousands of tiny plastic beads cover Lake Tahoe beach in ‘serious threat’ to wildlife

Thousands of plastic styrofoam beads spilled onto a beach at Lake Tahoe, in what a non-profit has described as a "shocking environmental incident."

The beads are believed to have been released by a floating dock that broke free during high wind on 6 January.

Clean Up The Lake organised a large-scale cleanup on 8 January, estimating that they removed around 90 per cent of the beads but some remain mixed into the sand and snow on Ski Beach and Incline Beach.

The organisation said the beads can have detrimental effects on aquatic life and pose serious threats to the overall health of the environment.