Yetis have been sighted from Seattle to Alaska.
Hundreds of luxury brand coolers are washing up on shores after a cargo ship spilled cargo containers into the Pacific Ocean last year, and people are now on the hunt for items costing up to $750.
Scientists studying how debris moves through ocean currents believe the 1,600 coolers lost at sea will drift around the world over the next 30 years.
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer told The Wall Street Journal that all yetis are “right where they’re supposed to be” because of the estimated drift speed of the ocean that carries them seven miles a day.
However, the spill also released toys, urinal mats, refrigerators and other merchandise that now litter beaches in the northwestern United States and Canada.
Alaskan resident Dukke Marolf found 19 Yeti coolers on the beach. The coolers fell off a ship last October
Ebbesmeyer believes that the Yeti coolers aboard the ship Zim Kingston were bound for South Korea.
However, the ship ran into rough water on October 21, 2021, spilling at least 100 cargo containers into the Pacific and coolers are making their way in for a landing.
And sandpipers flock to the coast in droves hoping to snag one or more of the expensive coolers.
Duke Marolf, a 38-year-old marine welder and bush pilot in Seward, Alaska, told WSJ he’s found 19 yetis and is still looking for more.
“The Yetis are still out there,” Ebbesmeyer told the outlet.
“The coolers will continue to circle the world. You’re going to get reports from people finding yetis for the next 30 years.”
Reports of a yeti also came from Hawaii, about 450 miles from where the burial occurred.
While the brightly colored coolers are a great find, the other items are much more difficult to remove from the ocean and land.
Inflatable toys, floor mats, baby oil and wellies are among the litter-polluted shores that mingle with wildlife.
A teacher in Port Hard, British Columbia, Canada, took her class on a trip to the beach near Cape Scott Provincial Park and the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island for a weekly field trip to learn about the country.
But what they saw was a disfigured coast.
Jerika McArter told KUOW: “At first we didn’t realize the scale, so it was kind of exciting.
“But as we walked further down the beach there was a lot of shock, fear of what’s going to happen with all this stuff, how many years it’s going to take to clean it all up, sadness, anger.
“You could see more debris floating around in the waves, it was all just overwhelming.”
Hundreds of Yeti coolers wash up on the shores of Seattle and as far north as Alaska
Yeti said it lost at least 1,600 coolers when the ship capsized in October
Beachcombers are now in search of the colourful, luxurious coolers
The Zim Kingston, owned by Greece-based Danaos Shipping Company, burned for a week after containers carrying flammable chemicals caught fire following stormy weather.
The massive ship tipped on its side before the fire broke out, releasing 109 containers into the Pacific.
Radio communications indicate that the crew, including the captain, have been ordered by Canadian authorities to abandon ship.
“The advice is that you surrender, surrender completely, including the entire crew and the captain,” a Canadian Coast Guard official was heard broadcast to the ship.
The containers on the ship were lost in rough seas due to a strong low pressure system that at times was hurricane force with sea heights of up to 30 feet.
Inflatable toys, floor mats, baby oil, and refrigerators are among the litter-polluted shores that unite with wildlife. All of these items floated out to sea during the cargo ship’s departure
The Zim Kingston, owned by Greece-based Danaos Shipping Company, burned for a week after containers carrying flammable chemicals caught fire following stormy weather
A storm is considered a bomb cyclone if its minimum air pressure drops by 24 millibars or more in 24 hours, known as bomb arching.
According to a study commissioned by the World Shipping Council, between 2008 and 2016, an average of 568 containers were lost worldwide each year.
Ongoing supply chain problems have caused shortages in a variety of commodities, with shipyards stuck in traffic and a shortage of truck drivers exacerbating the problem.