10,000 Shipping Containers Lost At Sea Each Year

kkleiner writes "Right now, as you read this, there are five or six million shipping containers on enormous cargo ships sailing across the world's oceans. And about every hour, on average, one is falling overboard never to be seen again. It's estimated that 10,000 of these large containers are lost at sea each year. This month the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) sent a robotic sub to investigate a shipping container that was lost in the Monterrey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 2004. What's happened to the sunken shipment in the past seven years? It's become a warren for a variety of aquatic life on the ocean floor, providing a new habitat for species that might otherwise not be attracted to the area."

Comments

"Lost"

[Warbane]

I wonder how many of those 10,000 are really lost and how many are "lost."

One more thing

[Anonymous Coward]

To add: If the Captain of any vessel orders it, (in an emergency) any containers they are carrying can be jettisoned to ensure the ship's safety.
Having worked helping customers move their personal possessions overseas, (mainly for oil & telecommunications companies) I can tell you we very rarely mention it. I have had many people as me if they can pack their kids in with their sofas though.

Re:One more thing

[garyebickford]

And that is why these guys recommend shipping insurance (there are many others in their business, I'm sure). They also maintain the Gallery of Transport Loss, with photos of the disasters that have occurred to various ships and freight airplanes, which for some reason I find terrifically amusing.

It's also an example of terrible web design (on every page you have to scroll down a long way to get to the actual content). Nevertheless it's worth navigating in any case for a couple of hours of pictures of ships on the beach, ships sinking, ships struck by hurricanes, ships losing containers, etc.

A couple of examples:

towboat pulled under a bridge, rolled upside down, and comes up on the other side

M/V APL China struck by hurricane, limps into port with containers hanging over the side.

Last but not least, a day at the beach turns into four months. Truly amazing pictures of people walking up the beach next to a huge container carrier

29,000 rubber ducks

[DigiShaman]

Reminds me of this story. Basically, 29,000 toy yellow ducks fell overboard as it was leaving China back in 1992.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-464768/Thousands-rubber-ducks-land-British-shores-15-year-journey.html

Well known hazard to yachties

[waimate]

Many of these tend to float pretty much at surface level for days or even weeks. With surface waves, they are impossible to see from small craft but of course are massive and hard. They are a very well known hazard to cruising folk crossing oceans, and will readily hole and sink a fibreglass yacht, or even knock a keel off. Forward-looking sonar, if you've got it, can't see them because of waves.

There are thousands of people crossing oceans in smallish boats, and every year a few of them go missing due to shipping containers. They very thought of them makes a cruising yachtie's blood run cold.

Stop the whining.

[MaroonMotor]

Container sacrifice is the only thing prolonging Cthulhu's sleep.

Re:They aren't lost one at a time...

[TheTurtlesMoves]

I have been told you can get quite cheap rates for the top layers. Also some have shear pins even, so that once the roll is at a particular level, they pop off automatic like (so i am told).

Also you should never, ever, ever ship something without insurance if you can't afford the loss.