Millions of uncooked chips and thousands of raw onion have washed up on beaches in southern England.
The fried potatoes, many still in their plastic bags, appeared strewn on the beach as the tide receded on Falling Sands beach near Eastbourne.
And just a couple of days previously, onions littered the shingle beach at Brighton, just 30km to the west, providing a feast for the city’s well known population of seagulls.
The potato chips are believed to have been those housed in 20 huge containers that washed overboard from two ships in the English Channel during a storm, while the onions are believed to have come from a similar source.
Coral Evans, who is the founding director of the Leave No Trace Brighton community group, said the beach was also littered with single-use plastic gloves, surgical masks and cans of dried milk with countless miscellaneous items, including coffee cup lids, unopened beer cans and vegetables such as sweet potatoes.
The discoveries comes just two weeks after huge numbers of bananas were washed ashore near Selsey, West Sussex, after containers they were being shipped to the UK in also fell overboard from a ship.
Joel Bonnici, who lives in Eastbourne, told BBC Sussex that he ‘had to look twice’ when he went for a walk in Falling Sands adding: ‘The beach looked like the Caribbean golden sands. In some areas, the chips were two-and-a-half feet deep into the ground.’
A call-out for volunteers has been issued on a community Facebook page to encourage residents to help clean up the coastline, including removing wreckage of some containers
Bonnici said there was a small colony of seals nearby and the bags posed a danger to them.
‘I scuba dive quite regularly and I know what seals are like – if they see the bags they will play with them or try to eat them.’
Donna Trethewey, founder of Selsey Beach Litter Ninjas, said there had been no reports of shipping containers or their contents washing up in her area for years, until three separate incidents in the past six weeks led to 24 containers going overboard.
‘The original spillage saw seven containers washing up across our 7½km beach. Whole containers washed up and literally broke up before your eyes,’ Trethewey said.
She added that containers breaking down at sea had led to their contents, including produce such as bananas and avocados alongside their plastic packaging, being washed up ashore.
The group has highlighted the environmental impact of the beaching. It is focussed on securing ongoing support and resources to deal with the continued appearance of foam, metal and other debris, while also ensuring the safe removal of potentially toxic pollution
Members say they are also pursuing accountability and recompense for the damage caused to our coastline and sea defences, alongside making sure the long-term environmental impact on Selsey is fully addressed.
The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed17 containers were reported lost from a vessel called Lombok Strait off the Isle of Wight during Storm Goretti.
Another seven empty containers went overboard from a separate vessel, as winds hit more than 100kph. Three containers washed up at Seaford, East Sussex, while a container also came ashore at Littlehampton, West Sussex. Others are thought to have broken up at sea.
Seatrade, operators of the Lombok Strait report that the recovery operations for the 17 containers that went overboard are continuing with the first of the debris now being recovered.
A spokesperson said: ‘The company is closely cooperating with local authorities and the UK’s HM Coastguard on the process of locating and salvaging the containers with resources, expertise and assets mobilised on behalf of Seatrade and their insurers.
‘Meanwhile an HM Coastguard fixed wing aircraft continues to conduct periodic flights to monitor for further missing units and navigational warnings are being broadcast to shipping. The shoreline response is being coordinated by local authorities and their partner organisations.’
East Sussex County Council has urged members of the public to take extra care if they are visiting the coastline. ‘Please keep dogs on leads as some of the food items washing onto the shoreline may be harmful to them,’ the council added.
