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Monitoring the impact of lost container TGHU7712262 to deep seafloor habitat at Smooth Ridge 15 Containers Lost, One of Them Found
What Happens to Lost Containers? This was not an exceptional accident. According to the shipping industry, tens of thousands of intermodal containers have already been discharged into the world’s ocean, and thousands are lost at sea every year. Container losses not only represent a tremendous waste of manufacturing effort, energy and money, but they also aggravate the impacts of marine debris as they take centuries to degrade, and in certain cases they may release hazardous and toxic materials into the environment. Furthermore, as lost containers get scattered along international shipping routes, they begin to form stepping stones of hard surfaces between harbors (along extensive areas of soft seafloor habitats) potentially disturbing local ecological interactions, influencing recruitment and migration patterns of species, and conceivably favoring the expansion of invasive species distribution. For all these reasons it is important to bring public attention to this new concept in terms of human impacts to the ocean.
Remote Control Deep-Sea Exploration Despite the very deep location (4,203 feet) of TGHU7712262, scientists were able to explore closely both the container and the deep seafloor around it, using a robotic submersible – MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts. The ROV allowed them to take high-resolution photographs and video footage, and collect biological and sediment samples from the deep seafloor. Scientists were particularly interested in comparing the communities of sea life and the chemistry (carbon and nitrogen) of sediments that were found on (and around) the container, versus those on the seafloor at different distances from it. Potential impacts from this and other lost containers to deep-sea habitats and biological communities include:
Scientists also collected sediment samples (at the container’s location and further away) to compare the communities of species that live buried in the mud, and investigate the differences in chemistry (nitrogen and carbon). These analyses will provide more specific clues about the nature and extent of ecological changes taking place at the impact site. A compelling and more detailed recount of the expedition is available in our traveler’s cruise log. An Expanding Issue, Broader Implications Most of the consumption items and products we buy and demand travel long distances around the world in piles of cargo containers, stacked on big transport ships. Approximately 200 million container trips occur every year, and 5 - 6 million containers are in transit at any given moment. From all this container traffic, many sources cite a figure of approximately 10,000 containers falling from ships each year. Containers are usually lost in rough seas or during storms. Some common causes of container loss include: increased stacking height, low freeboard, container contents improperly loaded, containers in poor condition, faulty connections between containers, heavier containers placed on top of lighter containers, containers stowed too close together, oversized containers, containers loaded far from amidships, misdeclared container weights, failure to adapt course to weather conditions, and ship crew in the bridge unaware of dangerous conditions. Responding to global trade demands, ships are getting bigger. Ultra Large Container ships are already travelling international waters. Unfortunately, the growing time demands placed on the shipping industry make it difficult to balance safety and efficiency. While container ship capacity has grown tremendously in the past two decades, safety protocols and securing methods have not been able to keep up. Meanwhile, lost containers continue to populate the deep seafloor at a rate of roughly 10,000 or more per year, potentially creating “stepping stones” for invasive species. The exploration of lost container TGHU7712262 is a first-look study, at one place, at one time. More research is required in order to confidently state the extent of the environmental impact derived from shipping container losses, but we know that a vast majority of the deep sea is still unexplored. In other words, we may be impacting the deep sea before we even understand what is there and how it functions. It is time to consider and start monitoring ecological impacts of lost shipping containers as the containerization industry rapidly develops. Shipping Routes Through MBNMS The Port of Oakland is the 4th busiest container port in the U.S., and draws much of the container ship traffic that passes through MBNMS. Traffic routes for cargo ships passing through MBNMS have been recommended in order to minimize the threat risk to marine and coastal wildlife. Container ships following these recommended tracks travel 15 nm off Point Sur and 12.7 nm off Pigeon Point when heading north, and 20 nm off Point Sur and 16 nm off Pigeon Point when heading south. Some conservation groups are campaigning for establishing mandatory, rather than recommended, shipping tracks, in order to reduce threats to sanctuary resources. Several efforts have been made to plot vessel traffic transiting the California coast. These data products can give us an idea of the intensity of container ship traffic passing through the MBNMS |
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