A surge of plastic trash has been washing up on beaches across the Bering Strait Norton Sound region, attracting the attention of national maritime agencies. The debris appears to have come from a one-time dumping event, but when and how the debris got dumped is still a mystery. The hardest hit area in the region is St. Lawrence Island, which sits just miles from Russian waters and has had problems with Russian debris in the past. The amount of waste is unprecedented, and the presence of fresh produce suggests that this trash is fairly new. The debris is believed to have come from a ship rather than a land-based garbage dump. It is still unclear whether or not the release was accidental or on purpose. The U.S. Coast Guard monitors vessels on the American side of the Bering Strait but has little formal communication with their counterparts on the Russian side.