This week, the beach in Melbourne, Florida was suddenly covered with thousands of yellow and red cans and freeze-dried bricks of Cafe Bustelo brand espresso coffee. Yesterday, packages of Ramen noodles started washing ashore at nearby Port St.Lucie. In Fort Pierce, bags of wine were also reported to be washing in on the tide. Thus far, no cheese and crackers have been reported washing up on the local beaches. There have been reports of bags of soggy dog food and paper towels, however. The bounty may be the result of lost containers from the deck of a passing barge.

On Sunday, the 340-foot container barge Columbia Elizabeth was en-route to Puerto Rico from Port Canaveral, Florida, carrying about 268 containers. At some point the crew of the tug boat, Captain Latham, noticed that not all was well with the tow. Containers had broken their lashings and several were hanging over the side. The tug and barge were diverted to the Port of Palm Beach, where they discovered that 25 containers were missing. The Coast Guard launched a search for the missing containers, which depending on the sea state, the weight of the cargo and other factors can remain floating and pose a hazard to navigation. The good news, based on the amount of flotsam washing up on the beaches, is that it appears that a number of the containers broke open which mean that they will sink and not be a hazard to passing boaters.  There was also concern that some containers carried batteries which might prove an environmental hazard if not recovered.

The barge Columbia Elizabeth was chartered by TOTE Maritime of Jacksonville. TOTE’s ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin in October with the loss of 33 crew.

Thanks to Irwin Bryan and Phil Leon for contributing to this post.