AP sheds light on little known phenomenon of shipping containers falling overboard

AP sheds light on little known phenomenon of shipping containers falling overboard
The Associated Press OCT. 11, 2024 https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/honorable-mention/20...

When science reporter Christina Larson got a tip from a marine ecologist about a shipping container that fell off a cargo ship and smashed into a California marine sanctuary, she wondered: How many shipping containers are lost at sea every year — and what are the global environmental impacts? Who is responsible for tracking and cleaning it all up?

In a collaboration between AP’s Global Investigations team, AP’s Health & Science team, and the U.S. reporting team, Larson and investigative reporter Helen Wieffering, both based in Washington, D.C., and video journalist Manuel Valdes and photographer Lindsey Wasson in Seattle teamed up to track down answers and visually document the impact of all the trash that washes ashore.

The AP team tracked down several concrete examples of communities and wildlife that have suffered on multiple continents, including coastal fishing communities in Sri Lanka that lost income for an extended time after a shipping container spill involving hazardous chemicals; wide-ranging junk from shipping container spills in the Pacific Ocean washing up near the Hawaiian Islands and on beaches in Washington state — captured in stunning video and photos by Valdes and Wasson; and mass deaths of endangered marine species, such as sea turtles.