More than 1,000 green plastic shipping trays, as well as packaging material, have washed ashore in San Francisco following rough weather that sent 12 shipping containers overboard near the Golden Gate Bridge.
The U.S. Coast Guard has issued what is called a Safety Marine Information Broadcast to urge caution in the area near Baker Beach where the trays came ashore.
Pictures from the area show hundreds of green totes from one shipping container littering the San Francisco Bay beach near the bridge after the containers fell from the Manoa ship “in heavy weather and seas” on Dec. 11, the Coast Guard said.
The beach, according to local news reports was being cleaned Monday, Dec. 14, with workers having an easier time picking up the large green trays than the polystyrene foam packaging material that was also scattered about.
“The responsible party has hired an environmental contractor to recover discharged debris and containers,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. And news reports on Dec. 14 showed workers handling the large plastic trays.
The 12 shipping containers that washed overboard were empty “with the exception of miscellaneous packing material. No hazardous materials were within the containers and no adverse impacts to the marine environment have been reported at this time,” the Coast Guard said.
A search was continuing for the other containers that washed overboard, the Coast Guard said.