Port authorities in Guam reload cargo in a panic reaction to literally thousands of spiders--an unidentified species by the island--pour from the ship’s cargo hold. The ship was sent back to sea for two days, after offloaded cargo was reloaded--upon further investigation, Guam port officials instructed the ship to head back home--spider infestation and all.
Joseph Torres, Director of Guam’s Department of Agriculture issued statement: “There’s only two animals that curl my skin -- spiders and snakes.” Skin curling must be serious, no joke--things that "make your skin crawl" are bad enough, let alone curl.
Guam Department of Agriculture saw thousands of spiders—including hundreds of the fuzzy creatures which were hefty in size—had been spotted by authorities as stevedores began offloading vast amounts of housing insulation and beams from the transport ship M.V. Altavia. Offloaded cargo was returned to the ship after the mass spider infestation was spotted, while the Agriculture Department has ordered that the ship not be allowed to dock at Guam--the vessel arriving after its previous port in South Korea.
The M.V. Altavia ship was transporting housing supplies and accessories for a work force village that was intended to house roughly 18,000 temporary workers. Port officials didn't identify the species of the spider infestation that arrived en-masse to Guam’s port—only that the spiders aren’t a type normally found on the island, creating serious concern for damage to Guam's environment. No word on how fast those spiders, which surely made it off of the ship in the newly-offloaded cargo, will reproduce.