An NHS doctor has explained on TikTok why severed feet still inside trainers keep washing up on the shores of the Salish Sea between Canada and the United States.
In a video by Dr Karan Raj that has been viewed more than 600,000 times, the expert theorises about the strange and rather gruesome phenomenon that has now happened 21 times since 2007.
As you might have already guessed this theory involves corpses of people that have either died at sea, been dumped in the ocean or washed out from whether they died.
According to Raj their feet become severed from their legs after scavengers in the waters set upon the flesh however these creatures only take a few bits and pieces from the body.
Raj says: “When a human corpse falls to the ocean floor, it’s quickly set upon by scavengers. These scavengers are lazy feeders and prefer to eat the softer parts of our bodies first.”
“Some of the softest parts of us are the soft tissues and ligaments around our ankles. When scavengers chow down on this the foot will detach easily from the body.”
However, this doesn’t really explain why the shoes remain on the feel. Raj believes that this is down to the way show manufactures, especially those that make trainers have changed the way they make their products.
He adds: “Over the last few decades, shoes have become more buoyant. As a result, we could be seeing more severed feet on our shores.”
This grim occurrence was recently ruled out as foul play by the British Colombia Coroners service who in December 2017 determined that the feet had likely come from people who had died in accidents or had taken their own lives.
The most recent discovery of this kind was in January 2019, when a boot and DNA belonging to Antonio Neill were found on Jetty Island in Everett, Washington. Neill had been missing since December 2016.