Assateague State Park, Ocean City and other beaches along the Maryland coast have closed access to the ocean due to “a significant amount of medical waste washing onshore,” Maryland State Parks wrote on X Sunday afternoon.

The waste includes hypodermic needles, according to Hugh Hawthorne, superintendent of the Assateague Island National Seashore, who said the situation was still “emerging.” It is unclear where the waste is coming from.

Hawthorne said the north end of Assateague Island, “where the worst of this is,” is closed to visitation, while all beaches on the Maryland district of the island are closed to swimming and wading.

CoastTV.com reported that beaches in Fenwick Island, Delaware, also have been closed.

Ocean City’s government Facebook page posted that the beach patrol had also closed the ocean to swimming and the situation in Worcester County is serious, “especially given the combination of rough seas and the current health concerns.” In response to the post, users posted photographs — some of which they said were taken the day before — that appeared to show syringes along the shore.

“Until we are confident that the situation is under control, we recommend wearing shoes on the beach and avoiding the ocean entirely,” said Ocean City Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald, according to the page. He added that they are investigating the source of the waste.

A request for comment from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources was not immediately returned.

It is unclear how long the ocean will be off limits in these coastal areas, but Hawthorne said he suspects it will be more than a day. “Even if there was nothing more, we would still have to do cleanup,” he said.

In the meantime, access to Assateague’s campgrounds and boardwalks is available.

Medical waste washing ashore is sadly not a new phenomenon. In the late 1980s, a “syringe tide” traced to a Staten Island landfill resulted in pollution and tourism issues for the Jersey Shore and New York area. Similar issues have occurred in the same general region since, including hundreds of hypodermic needles showing up on beaches due to sewage overflow in 2021.

“But to my knowledge,” Hawthorne said,” it hasn’t happened in Maryland before.”

This is a developing story.