High-end coolers wash up on Alaskan beaches following Washington cargo spill

Consumer goods from coolers to bike helmets have been washing up on beaches on the Gulf of Alaska, at least a 1,200-mile journey from Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where a cargo ship spilled 109 shipping containers in October.

Plastic trash washing up from far away has long been an eyesore and an ecological menace on Alaska’s otherwise pristine wilderness beaches.

But some high-value debris, apparently spilled by the Zim Kingston, a cargo ship en route from Busan, South Korea, to Vancouver, Canada, has Alaskan beachcombers cheering.

As soon as Kathy Peavey heard about the big cargo spill, she said she immediately thought, “Oh my gosh, what are we going to find, you know? What are we going to get?”