An NHS doctor named Karan Raj has proposed a possible explanation for the phenomenon involving sneakers containing severed feet washing up on the shores of North America.
According to The Sun, some 21 such severed feet were found on the shores of the Salish Sea, located between the United States and Canada, since 2007.
Dr. Raj argues it can be explained by the properties of the footwear still attached to these pieces of dead flesh and bone, and by the behaviour of the sea creatures that feast on the bodies of the drowned, according to the newspaper.
"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,” he explained. "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."
It is these eating habits of sea-dwelling scavengers, coupled with the fact that "shoes have become more buoyant" during the past few decades, that are responsible for this phenomenon, Raj claimed.
"As a result, we could be seeing more severed feet on our shores," he surmised.