Warning over shipping containers lost overboard
Authorities are asking well-meaning residents to hold back cleaning up beaches as debris continues to wash up from a cargo ship, which lost 83 containers off the NSW coast.
A concerned resident described the debris from the YM Efficiency as “horrendous, it’s an environmental nightmare”.
Incident controller Shane Wilde said the “heaviest concentration” of washed up debris was around Jimmys Beach, north of Newcastle.
But while many have gone out to clean up the state’s beaches from plastic and other items including clocks, nappies, bumper bars, cleaning materials and containers of emu oil, authorities are asking them not to.
“We do ask not to do that, we do have contractors on site and we will be ramping up this afternoon (Monday) with the right people, with the right equipment and cleaning up in the right manner,” NSW Maritime’s Angus Mitchell said.
The request comes as news that the YM Efficiency is finally headed to Port Botany on Monday night. It’s currently off Gerroa, south of Sydney.
The ship’s owners and insurers will foot the bill for the clean-up.
