Investigators said two men walking on the beach at No. 6 Road and Triangle Road in Richmond found the right foot Tuesday night. The foot was inside a white Nike running shoe.

The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed the remains to be human, but no further identification - including the gender - has been made.

The discovery is the seventh severed foot to wash ashore along the shores of southern British Columbia. An eighth foot also was found in Washington state.

Officials provided this chronology of the bizarre series of discoveries:

• Aug. 20, 2007 - Right male foot found in Campus running shoe on Jebediah Island near Parksville, B.C. (identity withheld at family's request)

• Aug. 26, 2007 - Right male foot found in Reebok running shoe on Gabriola Island near Nanaimo, B.C. (unidentified)

• Feb. 8, 2008 - Right male foot found in Nike running shoe on Valdez Island near Gabriola, B.C.

• May 22, 2008 - Right female foot found in New Balance running shoe on Kirkland Island near Richmond, B.C.

• June 16, 2008 - Left male foot found in Nike running shoe on Westham Island, B.C. (matches foot found Feb. 8, 2008)

• August 2008 - Right male foot found in black, high-top shoe about 30 miles west of Port Angeles along Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington state

• Nov. 11, 2008 - Left female foot found in New Balance running shoe at Finn Slough near Richmond, B.C. (matches foot found May 22, 2008)

• Oct. 27, 2009 - Right foot found in white Nike running shoe in Richmond, B.C.

Canadian authorities said they've found no indications of foul play in relation to the severed feet; they said the remains appear to have separated from the body through a natural process.

An additional severed foot was thought to be found along the B.C. coast in June 2008, but it was later determined to be a hoax. Investigators said the shoe contained an animal paw inside a sock packed with dried seaweed.

Expert: Severing likely natural

Some believe the feet are related to organized crime, that it is the result of a form of punishment. Others think someone may be playing a practical joke. Many believe there is something sinister behind it.

But one expert believes otherwise.

One of the most perplexing questions: why are they just finding feet? Top forensic bug scientist Gail Anderson knows why.

With the help of the Venus Project, an underwater lab, she's done some of the only experiments on what happens to bodies underwater.

"We understand a lot about decomposition on land," said Anderson. "We're just scratching the surface now in the ocean."

Anderson put freshly-killed pigs in deep water with very low oxygen and no light. Later, she got a surprise.

"We got massive scavenging to the point where both animals were completely skeletonized within less than four weeks," she said.

Anderson said the same thing would happen to a human body, but sneakers would protect the feet. And once released from the body, the buoyant sneakers would float to the surface.

University of Victoria Oceanographer Richard Dewey says sneakers can float "for months, if not years."

Dewey has developed detailed models of the tides and currents in the Strait of Georgia. Because the way the water sloshes and dilutes in the Strait, Dewey says, the five feet "could have come from anywhere."

The feet could have come from anywhere inside the Strait of Georgia, even potentially from Bellingham Bay or Boundary Bay in Northwest Washington.