At least seven black floats from Japan have washed up on Washington state beaches over the past few weeks, and one U.S. oceanographer believes they mark the leading edge of debris from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northwestern Japan last March.
One of the meter-long polyethylene buoys bears the name of a Japanese producer from a region hard hit by the disaster and has tentatively been identified by a Japanese fisheries official, according to a story posted this weekend by the Mainichi Daily News in Japan.
Ever since a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake struck northern Japan on March 11, scientists and oceanographers have been trying to track a massive tsunami of flotsam and waste on its slow journey across the Pacific Ocean toward North America. The material could ensnare marine life, pollute beaches and possibly include human remains or even radioactive material from nuclear power plants damaged during the disaster.
After viewing a photograph of one of the buoys, Yuuki Watanabe, with a cooperative association in the Japan prefecture of Miyagi, told Japanese journalists that it resembles a type of float common to oyster farms from that area. For a photo of the buoy, check out this story posted by StormWatch 7 weather blog of an ABC affiliate in Washington DC. "I wish the buoys would be given back to us if it is confirmed that they belonged to members of our association," Watanabe said here. "But we know it may be difficult given transportation costs."
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer — a pioneer in using debris to track ocean currents — announced the Olympic Peninsula landfalls during a lecture last week at Peninsula College. A video of the hour-long presentation has been posted on YouTube here.
At least seven black floats from Japan have washed up on Washington state beaches over the past few weeks, and one U.S. oceanographer believes they mark the leading edge of debris from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northwestern Japan last March.
One of the meter-long polyethylene buoys bears the name of a Japanese producer from a region hard hit by the disaster and has tentatively been identified by a Japanese fisheries official, according to a story posted this weekend by the Mainichi Daily News in Japan.
Ever since a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake struck northern Japan on March 11, scientists and oceanographers have been trying to track a massive tsunami of flotsam and waste on its slow journey across the Pacific Ocean toward North America. The material could ensnare marine life, pollute beaches and possibly include human remains or even radioactive material from nuclear power plants damaged during the disaster.
After viewing a photograph of one of the buoys, Yuuki Watanabe, with a cooperative association in the Japan prefecture of Miyagi, told Japanese journalists that it resembles a type of float common to oyster farms from that area. For a photo of the buoy, check out this story posted by StormWatch 7 weather blog of an ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. "I wish the buoys would be given back to us if it is confirmed that they belonged to members of our association," Watanabe said here. "But we know it may be difficult given transportation costs."
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer — a pioneer in using debris to track ocean currents — announced the Olympic Peninsula landfalls during a lecture last week at Peninsula College. A video of the hour-long presentation has been posted on YouTube here.
"A single black float found during a beach cleanup east of Neah Bay more than two weeks ago was identified by Seattle oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham as being from the massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami," according to a story about the event by the Peninsula Daily News.
"Since the announcement, more floats, each about the size of a 55-gallon drum, have been reported from Neah Bay to Vancouver Island," the story added. "In LaPush, where two floats were found last month, the Quileute Tribe has organized a response to the arrival of the tsunami debris."
Ebbesmeyer, who became famous for tracking the worldwide oceanic travels of spilled rubber duckies, has said that the tsunami material might include severed human feet still caught inside shoes, which act as floatation. "There is probably going to be some human remains and perhaps some disembodied feet in sneakers. A sneaker could probably bring the bones across in a year, just like the British Columbia cases," he was quoted here.
"All debris should be treated with a great reverence and respect," Ebbesmeyer added.
A devastating tsunami with terrible results
The temblor — fourth most powerful on record — triggered what may be the most damaging tsunamis to ever strike a populated area. Some of the waves rose as high as 133 feet as they flushed up to six miles inland, where they destroyed or damaged 125,000 houses and buildings in 28 towns. More than 15,800 people died.
When these waves receded, they carried off everything that might float, launching a flotilla of garbage the likes of which no one has ever seen before.
"If you put a major city through a trash grinder and sprinkle it on the water, that's what you're dealing with," is how Ebbesmeyer described it at the time.
The debris was expected to reach the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands this fall, and possibly reach the Pacific Northwest or southeastern Alaska by 2013 and later, according to calculations by the International Pacific Research Center in Honolulu.
A new prediction by NOAA — explained in this nifty video — made similar estimates and also emphasized that most of the material would probably remain at sea, circling in a zone of flotsam known as the North Pacific Garbage Patch. The "StormWatch 7" blog from ABC Channel 7 in Washington, D.C., also posted a different NOAA video visualization of the flotsam route, appearing like so many snakes wiggling across the Pacific.
No Alaska landfall ... yet
None of the debris has been reported on any Alaska beaches — so far, according to this story posted Monday by the Anchorage Daily News.
"We have not seen anything as of yet," Dave Gaudet with the Marine Conservation Alliance, told the Daily News. "But of course our weather, being what it is, people really aren't out there looking. December is not prime beachcombing time in Southeast Alaska."
Ebbesmeyer always warned that some of the material could get to the Pacific Northwest much faster than originally predicted, especially air-filled objects that can catch the wind and zip across the surface. Visualize how fast a beach ball might shoot across water versus a bobbing, partly submerged log, and you get the picture. While most debris might lubber along at about seven miles per day, lighter material could scoot up to three times faster, Ebbesmeyer told the Peninsula Daily News here.
"If the item is light and sticks out of the water, it will drift much faster across the Pacific," wrote IPRC scientists Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner in a new post addressing the turn of events. "The drum that washed on the shores of the Olympic Peninsula is such a light object; the part that sticks out of the water acts like a sail, and the wind can push it much quickly than heavier objects."
Still, most objects won't make it to North America or Alaska, remaining far out to sea, Maximenko and Hafner added here.
"We expect the majority of heavy debris will move towards the North Pacific Garbage Patch, a convergence located between Hawaii and California that routinely collects floating objects."
Contact Doug O'Harra at doug(at)alaskadispatch.com