8 Dec 2025Why are there bananas on the beach?Here is what we know so far after 16 containers fell from a cargo ship in the Solent. 8 Dec 2025

Donna Tretheway runs Selsey Beach Litter Ninjas, who have been helping to clean up the area.

She said they had "not seen anything on this scale" in the three years that they have been litter picking.

The environmentalist said she felt "devastated and heartbroken" by the situation.

"It is enough to make you cry, it really is," she said.

She said her team did its best to keep the beach clean but that this was "catastrophic".

She described it as "green crates as far as the eye can see", adding that "it's carnage out there".

She said the metal containers had broken up in the water but that their main concern was the "insulation" and "foam" polystyrene, which has torn into "tiny pieces" they cannot pick up.

"It's inevitably going to go into the food chain, so it's not only impacting on the animals themselves but it's going to impact on humans in the long-run," Ms Tretheway said.