The Salish Sea is a marginal sea located in British Columbia, Canada and Washington State,
USA. It is partially enclosed from the Pacific Ocean by land, and features an intricate network
of adjoining waterworks. Since 2007, over 20 detached human feet have been found on
the coasts of the Salish Sea... wait...what? Yes, as strange as it sounds nearly two dozen
human feet have been found here in recent years; and that's not counting the numerous
other fake feet that have also been found in the same area. What the hell does any of
this mean? Where are these feet coming from? Who do they belong to? Why do they keep showing
up here? Well, believe it or not this mystery does have an answer, so let's get into it.
On August 20th, 2007, on Jebediah Island, British Colombia, a 12-year-old girl picks
up a lone sneaker she finds on the beach. Inside, there is a human foot. Just six days
later on nearby Gabriola Island, a couple find another foot in a shoe. Well, that's
got to be from the same body right? Wrong, not only were the feet wearing different shoes,
but they were both right feet - meaning they are from completely different people - or
a multi-right-footed mutant freak. In the following years more and more feet
keep showing up along the coasts of the Salish Sea, some of the feet even match feet found
earlier, resulting in complete pairs. Most of the feet are found in running shoes or
sneakers and are still wearing their socks. As the police looked into what was going on,
they were inevitably inaundated with theories from stay-at-home sleuths, aka, the common
idiot. These theories ranged from the involvement of aliens, to the work of a foot-inclined
serial killer, to sunken containers full of drowned migrants at the bottom of the ocean.
Damn immigrants with their smelly feet washing up on our beaches.
The foot mystery also attracted the attention of some less well-intentioned idiots too.
Soon enough, jokers were creating hoax feet by putting meat and animal bones in shoes
and scattering them around the coasts as a prank. But even disregarding the fakes, there
were still a lot of feet washing up from the Salish Sea. To date there's been at least
21 discovered feet belonging to real deceased humans.
So what's going on here? Well, thankfully science has the answer. After forensic examination
it was found that the feet had come from corpses underwater and washed up. The detachment of
the feet is credited to a combination of decompostion and scavenging by sea creatures such a shrimp
and crabs. These scavengers chew away at the soft tissue around the ankles until the feet
break free of the body. Modern day sneakers are made of lightweight
materials like foams, that make them buoyant - so, if said detached feet were wearing said
sneakers, they were more likely to float to the surface and eventually wash up. This explains
why most of the feet were found inside sneakers and why this seems to be occuring more recently,
as sneakers are lighter now than footware of the past.
So where are all these feet coming from and who do they belong to? Police found that most
of the feet came from years old corpses of people in British Columbia and Washington
State. Cause of death was almost always ruled as misadventure or suicide.
Examples include the 2008 and 2011 discoveries of a pair of feet identified to belong to
a woman who jumped off the Patullo bridge in New Westminster in 2004. Another 2011 discovery
was identified as belonging to a local fisherman who went missing in 1987.
So why are all these feet washing up in this particular region? The answer is fairly simple.
The Salish Sea is a large, fairly complex body of water naturally enclosed by land,
making it easy for errant floating objects to get trapped there and wash up on its coasts.
The prevailing winds are westerlies, blowing objects in instead of carrying them away.
The area also has a large population of underwater scavengers. Look at that bastard, he'll gobble
up your ankles in a heartbeat. What does that all mean? It means the Salish
Sea is an unusually likely place for nearby feet to wash up and you should probably cancel
your plans to dump any bodies nearby.
And that's pretty much all there is to it. The mystery is incredibly captivating but
the answer is fairly mundane, although still quite interesting. Of course not all of the
feet have been identified, leaving some room for continued speculation on the more sensational
theories, if you're not fully satisfied. And if you're still not satisfied, well, of
course you aren't. You've just watched a Qxir video, you can't stop now, you need more.
They're like Pringles, or cocai--co puffs... Well don't let me stop you, go watch some
more Qxir videos, and hell you'd better subscribe so you'll see more in the future too. Thank
you, and adios.