Just because it may seem ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ doesn’t mean there aren’t vast environmental consequences,” said marine biologist Andrew DeVogelaere of California’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary,

The Associated Press reported more than 20,000 shipping containers have been lost at sea in the last decade and a half,

Most of the world’s everyday goods and raw materials moved over long distances are packed in large metal boxes the size of tractor-trailers and stacked on ships.

Over 20,000 shipping containers have fallen overboard since 2010, their contents polluting shorelines and habitats.

A single container changes the micro-ecosystem around it - impacting seafloor species that scientists are still discovering.