Action News Jax Investigates: El Faro debris washes ashore in Bahamas

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Great Exuma, the surrounding keys and at least two other Bahamian islands have seen much of the debris of what was once aboard El Faro, a container ship that sank in early October during Hurricane Joaquin.

Action News Jax even uncovered a piece of evidence investigators now want us to bring to them: a life jacket.

When Action News Jax arrived in Great Exuma, we knew debris had been washing up here by the truck load.
 
So we reached out to local men and women. Dwight Hart, the CEO of a local radio station, and his friend took us on a boat ride to nearby keys where debris has been reported.
 
Our first stop was a short 15-minute ride to White Bay Key.
 
"A lot of that stuff, toothbrushes, razors," Hart said.
 
Debris litters most of the shoreline, most of it is toiletries and food.
 
From there, we headed to another key. This is where Hart said he found a life jacket.
 
"A life preserver with what is evidently looks like some type of shark bite marks," Hart said.
 
But within 10 minutes, our boat driver Tony noticed a large object in the distance.
 
As we got closer it was clear: this was a large container not yet reported as being found.
 
Half of the container was missing: a sticker on the side clearly reads Sea Star, it has a refrigeration unit attached to it and it appeared to have been carrying food.
 
The container also has what appears to be some sort of locking mechanism on either side of the container and another piece appears to be part of a separate container that obviously ripped off.
 
We found another piece of the container lying a few feet away. Hart and Action News Jax's Lorena Inclan walked up and down the beach and found mostly food and bath products, but debris is still washing up.
 
Now the work begins to collect the debris and assess any environmental damage.

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