On February 4, 1999, a Japanese ship named the "New Carissa" ran aground on a beach 2.75 miles (4.3 km) north of the entrance to Coos Bay, drawing international attention to the area. The "New Carissa" was empty of cargo at the time, heading for the Port of Coos Bay to pick up wood chips. When the captain was told that the weather was too severe for the ship to enter port, he anchored his ship close by. The crew put out only one anchor, and it appears that this was probably on too short a chain to be effective. The subsequent US Coast Guard investigation found several other aspects of the ship's company's handling of the situation to have been poor, leading to the conclusion that human error caused the grounding. 70,000 US gallons (260 m3) of fuel oil were spilled by the vessel, with a further 165,000 to 255,000 gallons (625 to 965 m3) being deliberately set alight and burnt off later. The stern of the ship remained on the beach; the bow was towed out to sea and sunk after structural damage caused by the fire split the ship in two. In 2008, the stern of the "New Carissa" was cut into pieces and removed from the beach.