Months later, only four of 109 missing containers from MV Zim Kingston have been found

The 109 shipping contains fell from the MV Zim Kingston in stormy waters last October, roughly 41 nautical miles west of the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It’s been nearly three months since 109 shipping containers went overboard in B.C. waters, and to date, 105 of them are still missing.

Four of the MV Zim Kingston’s containers washed up along the north coast of Vancouver Island last November, but Canadian Coast Guard says the rest are unaccounted for.

“Despite efforts to model the potential trajectory of these containers, the exact location of approximately 105 of these containers is currently unknown,” it wrote in an emailed statement to Global News.

“The Canadian Coast Guard continues to work with the vessel owner to develop a plan to conduct a sonar scan of the area where the containers went overboard and an assessment of risk that the overboard containers could pose to the environment.”

While that work is underway, environmental groups say the products carried by those containers — including unicorn floaties, urinal mats, baby oil, cologne and coolers — are washing up on local shorelines.

“The funny thing is, you can find the pink unicorn at Rath Cove and Palmerston, but you’re finding the little pumps down at Grant Bay that go with them,” said Ashley Tapp, co-founder of the beach cleanup group Epic Exeo, in an interview.

According to Alys Hoyland, youth lead at Surfrider Pacific Rim, the province’s well-established network of beach cleaners has detected debris associated with the containers from as far north as Haida Gwaii to as far south as Victoria.

“Our two primary concerns really are around accountability and forward planning for how we prevent this kind of thing from happening again,” she told Global News.