New Carissa was a 639-foot (195 m) freighter that grounded on North Spit in 1999, causing an oil spill about 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Coos Bay and 4 miles (6.5 km) west of the community of North Bend, Oregon. The US Navy set explosives on the ship to burn off the remaining fuel, but the explosion and fire caused the New Carissa to split in half. Eventually, the bow section was successfully towed out to sea and sunk. The stern section remained on the beach until 2008, when it was dismantled and removed. North Spit is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The beach is a sand spit at the southern-most end of a series of sand dunes, forested islands, and wetlands extending along the Oregon coastline from Florence in the north to Coos Bay in the south and is home to the threatened western snowy plover. The sand spit formed by the process of longshore drift that occurs where longshore currents develop when waves meet the beach at an oblique angle. 

The ship was a Panamanian-flagged dry bulk-freighter optimized for transporting wood chips and owned by Green Atlas Shipping, a subsidiary of Nippon Yusen Kaisha. On February 4th 1999 New Carissa was bound for the Port of Coos Bay to pick up a load of wood chips. The ship’s crew was informed by the local bar pilots that weather conditions would prevent the ship from entering Coos Bay harbour until the next morning. The captain ordered the crew to drop anchor 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 km) off the coast to ride out the storm. The crew used a single anchor to secure the ship. According to a US Coast Guard review of the incident, winds of 20–25 knots (37–46 kph) caused the ship to drag anchor. The crew failed to notice that the ship was moving and, once the movement was detected, attempted to raise anchor and maneuver away from the shore. By the time the anchor was raised they had been pushed too close, and the ship ran aground on North Spit, a beach 2.7 miles (4.5 km) north of the entrance to Coos Bay.

Rescuers were concerned about the 400,000 gallons (1,818,436 l) of fuel oil on board. Over 70,000 gallons (318,226 l) leaked onto local beaches and estuaries, causing the death of over 3,000 shorebirds and threatening many marine-based businesses. Attempts to pump off the fuel were unsuccessful, so the decision was made to burn the New Carissa to get rid of what remained, but the subsequent fire caused the hull to break in two. By late February a decision was made to tow the bow section out to sea and sink it. As the freighter was being towed on March 2nd, a storm broke the towline and the bow section drifted back to shore and landed at Waldport. On March 9th authorities re-attached the towline and dragged the bow 280 miles (452 km) out to sea. Two days later 380 pounds (172 kg) of plastic explosives were detonated on board, but the bow refused to sink. The US Navy then shot 70 rounds of shells at the bow, which still refused to sink, so finally a torpedo directly hit the bow and sent it to the bottom. The State of Oregon eventually won a court battle to have the stern of the ship removed from the beach in 2008. Read more here and here. Explore more of North Spit here: