U.S. Coast Guard officials are warning mariners to be cautious as they navigate the waters off San Francisco Bay after a cargo ship lost a dozen large containers just outside the Golden Gate Bridge Friday evening in heavy seas. The Manoa, an 810-foot cargo ship operated by Matson Navigation Co., was leaving the Port of Oakland en route to Seattle Friday evening when it encountered 19-foot waves and 20 mph winds just outside the Golden Gate Bridge, which caused 12 containers to slide off the ship, Coast Guard officials said. None of the materials inside the containers are hazardous to marine life, officials said, but the owner of the ship hired an environmental contractor to track down the containers and clean up any debris that washes ashore. While Fraser said the initial sight was depressing, his hopes were quickly buoyed when he encountered a group of high-school age boys who were diligently running into the surf to collect the debris and stacking the pallets on the beach, out of reach of the high surf. The Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were working with the state and city officials to clean up the contents of that container Monday morning, collecting the pallets using rakes to get the smaller pieces of debris and using metal saws to slice up large pieces of the container, which were washing up from the headlands to the west. Officials asked members of the public to contact the Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Command Center at (415) 399-7300 if they spot any of the missing containers.
Source: Truck-size shipping container washes up on S.F. beach – SFGate
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