Massive Cargo Ship Logjam Could Lead to Christmas Shipping Delays

It’s a traffic jam of epic proportions — at sea!

Dozens of cargo ships are lined up waiting their turn to unload. Satellite image taken this week off the port of Los Angeles shows 58 ships in total.

Inside Edition correspondent Jim Moret chartered a fishing boat and headed out to sea to get a close-up look at the gridlock. We also took a drone along to get a bird's-eye view.

The mass of ships carrying tens of thousands of shipping containers stretches for miles off the Southern California coast. And they may be anchored there for days or even weeks waiting to dock and unload their cargo.

And it's not just a West Coast problem. Across the country, including in New York harbor, they're all backed up too.

“This is historic. It’s epic,” Mario Cordero, executive director of Port of Long Beach told Inside Edition. “In normal times, there are zero — maybe at best, one or two vessels at anchor. Americans are buying at a high level, appliances, furniture. We’re getting ready for the holiday sales here.”

Each ship carries between 12,000 and 20,000 containers. And once they dock, it takes up to three days to offload the cargo. There’s simply not enough manpower or truck drivers to get it done faster. And soon, we will all begin to feel the impact of the pileup at sea.

“If you’re going to do Christmas shopping, I wouldn’t wait until the last minute this year,” Cordero said.

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