Japanese debris may be coming to a west coast city near you

Japanese dock in Agate Beach Oregon*

A nearly-70ft dock torn from a fishing port in northern Japan during the tsunami drifted thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean and floated ashore on an Oregon beach. A commemorative plaque on the dock showed it was one of four owned by Aomori Prefecture (state) that broke loose from the port of Misawa on the northern tip of the main island, Deputy Consul Hirofumi Murabayashi said from Portland.

"We were able to confirm from Aomori Prefecture that they don't wish to have it returned," he said. "About the other three, of course, we have no idea where they are floating, or if they are sunk somewhere." The dock was first spotted floating offshore on Monday and mistaken by several people for a barge, said Chris Havel of the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation. It washed ashore early on Tuesday on Agate Beach, a mile north of Newport on the central Oregon Coast. Belfast Telegraph, 6/7/12.  "Tsunami debris dock on US beach."   Read Article.

Montague Island near Seward, Alaska^

 "More than a year after a tsunami devastated Japan, killing thousands of people and washing millions of tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. government and West Coast states don't have a cohesive plan for cleaning up the rubble that floats to American shores.  ....  The Japanese government estimates that 1.5 million tons of debris is floating in the ocean from the catastrophe. Some experts in the United States think the bulk of that trash will never reach shore, while others fear a massive, slowly-unfolding environmental disaster.

....  NOAA projects the debris having spread over an area roughly three times the size of the contiguous United States, but can't pinpoint when or how much might eventually reach the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii."   News observer.com/Juneau, Alaska/Becky Bohrer  and Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press, 6/8/12.  "US braces for tsunami debris, but impact unclear."   Read Article.


Note:  Associated Press photographs: * The Oregonian by Thomas Boyd;  ^ News Observer by Chris Pallister.

Posted by Kathy Meeh