Shipping containers lost at sea

A half dozen 40-foot shipping containers were lost at sea about 30 miles off the Humboldt County coast last week. The shipping containers careened off of a northbound cargo vessel during a storm and are still nowhere to be found.

Humboldt Harbor Safety Committee Chair Leroy Zerlang said he was initially notified of the cargo spill by a commercial fisherman and was subsequently contacted by the U. S. Coast Guard

Sector Humboldt Bay.

“The update I got yesterday was that the Coast Guard was doing fly- bys trying to spot them,” Zerlang explained in a phone interview Thursday. “As of yesterday, they have not been spotted. The last report I got was that they’re heading southwest away from the shore, but that’s a few days old.”

Zerlang could not confirm the origin of the vessel or where it was headed.

“The only thing I have heard is that there was not hazardous waste (inside the containers), so that’s positive,” he said.

Although he has never dealt with it personally, Zerlang said shipping containers tumbling into the ocean is a relatively common occurrence.

“They lost six. Last week, a container ship traveling from China to Long Beach lost 1,900 (shipping containers) when they got caught in a storm 1,600 miles off of Hawaii,” Zerlang said. “On an average year, you probably lose about 1,600 of them. The ships are huge, they’re stacked high and it’s kind of like a domino effect, when one goes a whole row of goes.”

Zerlang recalled a time when a cargo ship lost a container of sneakers.

“Somebody once lost a container offshore that was full of Nike shoes,” he said. “There’s still a container out there off the canyon that is supposedly full of Nike shoes.”

When a cargo ship loses part of its load Zerlang said the Coast Guard will not retrieve the containers but will broadcast the sighting and notify the shipping company.

“Their insurance will

have to hire a commercial salver to go out there (and retrieve them) if the Coast Guard deems them a navigational or environmental hazard, but it depends on how deep they are,” Zerlang explained. “It’s hard to say this but sometimes there’s no reason to get them, they actually could become a fish habitat if there’s not damage.”

However, the containers could pose a threat to other vessels and commercial fishermen.

“If they’re still floating, if they’re not lit or if they’re partially submerged another vessel could run into them,” Zerlang said. “If they sink, depending on where they’re at, they could interfere with commercial fishing. If they’re going west and out, they’re really not a threat at all because fishermen only sink their nets so deep. However, if they sink within 20 miles of the beach, they could threaten their nets and gear which is a big expense and one more thing that’s in the ocean and doesn’t need to be in the ocean.”

Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District executive director Larry Oetker urged commercial fishermen to be extra cautious this season.

“With recreational crab season underway and commercial crab season opening soon, we encourage all vessel owners and crew to test their safety gear, practice what you would do in an emergency, and to exercise extreme caution while operating out in the open ocean and within Humboldt Bay,” Oetker wrote in an email Wednesday.

The Coast Guard did not respond to a request for comment ahead of the publishing deadline.