The Zim Kingston container ship has left Canada and is sailing west to Hong Kong where it is expected to arrive on Feb. 21.
It leaves behind 105 missing containers, which tumbled off the ship into the ocean during heavy weather Oct. 21-22, 2021, at the entrance to the Juan de Fuca Strait. Despite a massive air and water search just four containers were found, washed up on Vancouver Island’s rugged west and north coasts.
Containers spilled thousands of kilograms worth of debris into the ocean where the items washed up on remote beaches. It resulted in surreal scenes, such as refrigerators scattered across the sand on what had been a pristine beach.
The clean-up effort was paid for by the ship’s owner.
Environmental groups fear B.C. is not finished with the impact of the accident. They worry that additional debris will wash ashore in the future.
The 260-metre-long container ship left Roberts Bank this week, according to the website marinetraffic.com.
It was on its way to Vancouver when its cargo tumbled overboard. The ship then moored at Constance Bank off Victoria, where a fire broke out and damaged some of its cargo. The vessel was later moved to Nanaimo with a convoy of government vessels monitoring its progress.
Another fire broke out on the ship in December while it was docked in Nanaimo but was quickly extinguished. Crews in Nanaimo removed damaged containers. From there, Zim Kingston headed to the Lower Mainland.
