UPDATED 11.45am. Confusion surrounds the discovery of plastic beads found strewn along the tide line on Papamoa Beach following this week's storms.

A Papamoa local returned from a surf yesterday to discover a number of beads scattered along the beach amongst other debris that had washed up during the recent bad weather.

A photograph of the beads that were discovered on Papamoa beach yesterday. Photo: Supplied.

Photographs taken near the Wairakei stream mouth and sent to SunLive confirmed the beads had washed ashore, and more were found near Papamoa Domain outside the surf club and along the beach towards the Mount.

Initial assumptions suggested they had been brought in by stormy easterly weather over recent days from the wreck of the Rena. Two container loads of similar beads were on board the container ship when it struck Astrolabe Reef on October 5, 2011.

At the time, salvors were unable to recover the cargo that was 30 metres deep in the bottom of hold 4, before rough weather redistributed them.

However, SweenyVesty Managing Consultant and Rena Recovery Operations spokesperson Hugo Shanahan insists some beads that were found this week have not been exposed to the environment for any length of time, and may not have come from the wreck.

An Envirowaste contractor was sent to the location yesterday but reported that the beads were different to the ones that washed up in the aftermath of the disaster four years ago.

A handful of the beads pictured at the end of March 2014. Photo: File.

'There are no beads left on the wreck,” says Hugo. 'The salvors recovered all of the beads in the vicinity of the wreck.”

At the time, bead recovery became one of the shoreline salvage features, leading to contractors vacuuming the beaches in the months immediately following the wreck.

The plastic beads measure 2.5 millimetres in diameter. They do not represent any significant risk to public health and safety or to wildlife, but are a visual nuisance and can be difficult to remove from beaches, says Hugo.

This week's photographs were sent to SunLive anonymously, but the email did claim that birds in the area were ingesting the plastic. This was investigated soon after the wreck and unsupported.

A snap of the beads taken in the immediate aftermath of the Rena disaster in 2011. Photo: File.

They also claimed the beads are outside the scope of the Rena resource consent application about to be heard by Bay of Plenty Regional Council Commissioners.

'They are also a timely reminder of the on-going effects of the Rena wreck and unconsented discharges and the continuing and recurring impacts on the ecology animals and birds in the Motiti Natural Environment Area and wider Bay of Plenty,” they added.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Pollution Prevention staff responded to the reports yesterday afternoon.

Pollution Prevention Team Leader Stephen Mellor says the matter has now been referred to the Rena debris hotline for clean-up. Contractors are on-site doing that today.

"Assessment by our Pollution Prevention team has been that the beads are the same shape and size as those previously washed up from the Rena," says Stephen.

"Recent tide and weather events havecaused a lot of sand movement on the beach.It seems most likely that the beadswere buried in the sand and have been remobilised during this week's storm."

A spokesperson for the council says any further sightings of beads on other parts of the coastline should be called into the Rena debris hotline on: 0800 333 771.

Another of the pictures taken yesterday. Photo: Supplied.