After officials tasked with filling in Wrightsville's eroding beach were pushed offshore to source sand, they made a daunting discovery: Hundreds of thousands of tires that likely migrated from an artificial reef created by the Division of Marine Fisheries decades ago.

After officials tasked with filling in Wrightsville's eroding beach were pushed offshore to source sand, they made a daunting discovery: Hundreds of thousands of tires that likely migrated from an artificial reef created by the Division of Marine Fisheries decades ago.