TENS of thousands of uncooked potato chips have washed up on the beach at a popular beauty spot.
Walkers spotted the debris strewn along the coastline near Beachy Head, which are believed to have been spilled from shipping containers.
At least 20 containers are known to have fallen overboard, and due to tidal currents, the chips washed up on the East Sussex shores, not far from Eastbourne.
The containers are thought to have fallen from two separate vessels off the Isle of Wight thanks to rough seas during Storm Goretti.
The washed-up detritus also included polystyrene, onions, disposable face masks, and many of the chips still in their plastic bags.
Beach walker Joel Bonnici had been hiking to a seal colony at Falling Sands with his partner, when they cam across the debris.
He said: “From a distance, you would think the beach was covered in yellow sand.
“In some areas the chips were two-and-a-half feet deep into the ground.
“Immediately we both decided the hike was over and we would spend the next couple of hours clearing as many bags as we could until it got too dark to continue.”
Bonnici said there had been a call-out on a local community Facebook page to encourage people to come out and help the clean up.
He added: “Other families were doing the same and it was nice to see people coming together for the environment.
“It is sad that so much plastic pollution is just meters from the seal colony.
“I hope if enough people come down, we can have it cleared before the weekend ends.”
Three shipping containers are known to have washed up at Seaford in East Sussex on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said a container off Littlehampton, West Sussex, was also recovered last week.
They said: “An HM Coastguard fixed-wing aircraft has been sent to surveil the area this morning and continues to monitor for further missing units.
“All containers will be assessed to establish their origin.”
The MCA added that containers which washed up at Selsey, Eastbourne, Newhaven, Rustington, Rottingdean and Beachy Head are “currently being monitored.”
East Sussex County Council has urged members of the public to take extra care if they are visiting the coastline.
“Please keep dogs on leads as some of the food items washing on to the shoreline may be harmful to them,” they advised.
“Contact your district or borough council to report any new debris you find on our beaches or for information on whether volunteers are required.”
