Cargo fell overboard from 2 separate vessels off the coast of the Isle of Wight within the space of an hour late last night (Thursday).
Between 23:00 and midnight, cargo fell from 2 separate vessels, one off the Nab Tower and another about 16 nautical miles of St Catherine’s Point.
The containers are believed to have fallen from Liberian-flagged reefer vessel Lombok Strait and Cypriot-flagged cargo vessel Condor Valapariso.
It is unclear at this time how many containers in total have been lost, but investigations into the incident are well underway with HM Coastguard ‘monitoring the situation closely’.
As previously reported by Island Echo, It was just last month that nearly 20 containers fell from the Baltic Klipper, which coincidentally was also Liberian-flagged, as it made its way from Vlissingen to Portsmouth.
On that occasion the containers were full of perishable goods including fruits and vegetables. Several of the containers washed up on the shore on beaches in West Sussex.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCGA) has confirmed that some of the containers that went overboard last night were refrigerated.
A spokesperson from the MCGA has said:
“A number of shipping containers went into the sea from two separate vessels off the Isle of Wight on 8 January, reported to HM Coastguard between 11pm and midnight.
“The first report was made at about 11.10pm of a number of refrigerated containers going into the sea from a cargo vessel near the Nab Tower, east of the Isle of Wight.
“At about 11.55pm, seven empty containers were also reported to have gone overboard from a second cargo vessel about 16 nautical miles south of St Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight.
“HM Coastguard is monitoring the situation closely and is sending a fixed-wing aircraft. Any sightings of containers should be reported to Solent Coastguard on 0344 382 0560 or on VHF radio.
“Non-perishable wreck material arriving on shore, including cargo, must be reported to the Receiver of Wreck within 28 days. Visit https://www.gov.uk/report-wreck-material.”
UPDATE @ 10:07 – A fixed-wing HM Coastguard aircraft has taken off from Newquay Airport and is currently scouring the eastern coast of the Isle of Wight.
It’s becoming the norm thesedays.
Floating containers, I suppose nothing
to go overboard about.