A container from the Med Taipei, and one of an estimated 10,000 containers lost at sea each year.
On 25 February 2004, the container ship Med Taipei was caught in 9-metre swells off Monterey bay in central California, heading south for the port of Los Angeles. That night, 15 of its containers broke free of their lashings and toppled into the sea. Their contents included wheelchairs, cyclone fencing, clothing and recycled cardboard.
That would have been the end of the story, had the remote controlled submersible Ventana, operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Reseach Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, not happened across the container in June 2004. Video footage clearly showed the container’s serial numbers, which was key to extracting the record-setting payment from the Med Taipei’s operators.
Some of the money is now being used to allow scientists from MBARI and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) to see what has happened to the ecosystem since the 10-metre-long container landed on the seabed.