Another blog compiling information on debris coming ashore from the Japan tsunami is getting online traffic. It includes is a list of North American groups that have organized to clean up debris washing ashore.
The tragic flotsam from one of the worst disasters of the new century has been arriving months earlier than originally predicted by models based on the behavior of ocean currents — with the wind scooting the stuff thousands of miles across the surface of the sea at surprising speed.
Among the observers tracking debris is Chris Pallister, president of Gulf of Alaska Keeper, a group that monitors 17 cleanup sites and 122 miles of beaches. Members retrieve tons of garbage off remote Alaskan shorelines each year.
"In my opinion, this is the single greatest environmental pollution event that has ever hit the west coast of North America," Pallister told Naomi Klouda of the Homer Tribune. "The slow-motion aspects of it have fooled an unwitting public. It far exceeds the Santa Barbara or Exxon Valdez oil spills in gross tonnage and also geographic scope."
In a normal year, about a dozen shipping-yard floats that appear to originate overseas wash ashore on the 50-mile stretch between Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and Montague Island, Pallister told the Wall Street Journal on Friday. But hundreds have washed up at one beach alone in the past few days, he added.
More tsunami debris is floating in the Pacific between Japan and North America, said Peter Murphy, NOAA's regional coordinator for Alaska.
The Japanese government estimated 5 million tons of tsunami debris is in the ocean, with much of it sinking off the coast of Japan. "We are expecting to see other objects over time, including hazardous materials," Murphy told the Wall Street Journal. "Toxic materials in drums would be a concern, for example."