Not hard to understand why it's been feet washing up. Feet in shoes, that is. The main organs would be the first consumed by animals, as would exposed body parts like the head and arms. There goes the torso, vital organs, and most of the upper body. Pants are not really that protective against the environment and rip and deteriorate quickly in the water, and predators would be able to get to the meat quickly.
Feet in shoes are mostly protected as the rest of the body is consumed and decomposes, the ankles are thin and quickly erode and the feet separate from the rest of the body. Encased in the shoes, they are heavier and protected from the elements and animals, and get caught up in tides and washed ashore. So that part's not a real mystery.
A few doctors have claimed that feet don't just detach from bodies, but they've been contradicted by other doctors and coroners. And the doctors and cops saying it's weird for it to just suddenly be happening and not happening elsewhere forget that there was a rash of disappearances, so if those are linked to the feet (as I'll explain below) then it wouldn't be at all mysterious for a sudden series of events to create another series of events you otherwise don't commonly see.
It's not just right feet, as some stories claim. Two of the feet were LEFT feet, and were matched to two of the right feet, creating two pairs of feet from two individual people. So four of the eight feet (half of the total) are matched together for two people, meaning at most there are another four people, for a total of six people over a two-year period. Not in fact a large number, averaging about one every four months.
One of the pairs of feet that were matched together came from a woman, dispelling the idea that all of the feet are from men. So that breaks any cycle that would suggest a more consistent similarity.
Also, it's a myth that none of the people involved have been identified. The very first foot, in fact, was positively identified as coming from a Vancouver man who was emotionally disturbed and who disappeared a while before his foot was found. Suicide is suspected, so there's one mysterious foot case solved.
The fact that there was a plane crash in the area not long ago is the one of the "suspects" in the case of the remaining feet. A plane crash, followed by discovery of body parts that can be explained due to decomposition and predators leaving feet in shoes to wash ashore, minus the false rumors about only-right-feet and only-male-feet and no-feet-identified, is far less mysterious, isn't it?
The other main "suspect" (and the one I think is most likely) would probably be a combination -- there have been several missing-persons reports lately in the area during the time that the feet were found. Feet from the water amid several missing-persons reports could suggest some of the people committed suicide, and maybe a few others were simply swimming and drowned. The fact that the very first foot was identified and linked to a probable suicide is a good indication that this might be a good theory explaining the remaining feet.
Seems to me that half a dozen or so people disappearing over a period of twenty-four months, one of whom was in fact linked to the very first discovered foot, is the strongest "suspect" in my opinion. The feet were not all found at the same exact spot (one was in fact found in WASHINGTON STATE, one on Valdez Island, one on Kirland Island, one in Richmond, British Columbia, one on Westham Island, etc) and we know a suicide is the likely cause of one of them, so I think there's no reason to believe the cases are actually linked to a single event or cause necessarily.
The feet are being washed ashore, at different locations, and there's no reason to think a killer could or would somehow control tides and waters enough to ensure the feet wash up this way. I don't think it's "planned" or intentional in any way, then, and is just a bit discomforting and odd until we consider the logical reasons feet would be the body parts surviving long enough to be found. Once the coincidence of feet is explained, and we have at least two strong logical explanations for their origins -- 6 suicides and/or accidents over a period of two years -- it is just a story that sounds more mysterious than it really is, and only when most of the details are excluded from the real story.