YARMOUTH Coastguard have issued a warning to leisure boaters and regular marine traffic after a ship lost a 'significant amount of lost cargo' in heavy seas off the east coast of the UK.

YARMOUTH Coastguard have issued a warning to leisure boaters and regular marine traffic after a ship lost a 'significant amount of lost cargo' in heavy seas off the east coast of the UK.

The cargo was lost from the 79m Norwegian registered vessel Sally about 55 miles due east of Lowestoft.

The vessel, which was travelling from Sweden to the UK, has a crew of six on board.

The weather forecast at 4pm today(Monday) was for north westerly winds of force six to gale force eight, occasionally severe gale none, eventually decreasing to four or five.

The seas are described as rough or very rough and there are squally showers locally.

The vessel will be bound for Shoreham in West Sussex once the weather abates and marine surveyors from the MCA's Southampton office have been alerted to the ships imminent arrival.

The Coastguard have been liaising with the Dutch counterparts as to the location of the planks which floating on the surface or just below could present a threat to lighter, smaller vessels travelling from the Continent back to the UK or vice versa.

The UK Hydrographic office has also been informed.

Mario Siano, Watch Manager at Yarmouth Coastguard said: 'Individual planks if they come adrift of even larger bundles may not present too much of a threat to larger vessels in the regular shipping lanes, but impacting on smaller craft and certainly leisure vessels may cause significant damage, hence our broadcast warning today. We are working with the Dutch Coastguard and their aerial surveillance aircraft in order to plot the location of the patches of wood as they move south on the tidal drift, although there is of course a danger in heavy seas the bundles could split and cause the wood to raft together creating a bigger 'patch'. We will continue to monitor their movement as the weather and tide changes. We will also maintain surveillance of the vessel until she has resolved her problem. We have also alerted the Agency's counter pollution unit to the situation.'