Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?

these are shade balls they're being dumped into this water reservoir in los angeles and contrary to what you may have heard their main purpose is not to reduce evaporation so what are they really for to find out i'm visiting the largest collection of these balls anywhere on earth at la reservoir 96 million shade balls that's correct 96 million it's it's very rare for you to see 96 million of anything this is your life vest which you are required to wear all right throw a leg over and climb on in any way you can there you go thank you [Music] looking at this i had so many questions like why are they black are they safe to have in drinking water how much do they cost do they actually reduce evaporation and what is their real purpose is it hard to drive in shade balls it is very hard why is that these are actually partially filled with water and the reason they're filled with water is that at la reservoir we have some really high winds and so uh you know if we didn't put water in these things there'd be balls down to bouncing on the five freeways people drive down they'd be all over the place so uh so these keep the balls in the reservoir and if they do start to roll they kind of wobble because the water makes them uneven but that makes them significantly more difficult to push out of the way especially when they form close packed crystal-like structures behind the boat the balls quickly come together in our wake and some close to the motor are pulled along with the boat wow did you what did you think the first time they suggested doing this or when it when it first came in yeah it was a little out there did you think they were nuts no not nuts well it just it like it looks absurd it's like we're in the world's biggest ball pit right yeah that's what it looks like yeah you would you can't tell by standing here that we're actually floating over i think it's probably 40 40 feet right here 40 50 feet deep below us and we could you can't even see any water you'd think it was a joke right like if you didn't know you'd be like no ...