Japan tsunami debris confirmed in California
April 29, 2013, 5:25 pm
Redwood Coast Tsunami Working Group Examining the Japanese skiff that washed up
near Crescent City, Calif., on April 7, 2013. This is the first verified item from the Japan
tsunami to appear in California.
By Douglas Main
LiveScience
A small skiff recently washed ashore near Crescent City, Calif. But
this was no ordinary ship — it floated there all the way from Japan,
dislodged from its native land more than 25 months ago by a
monster tsunami, government scientists have confirmed.
It's the first confirmed piece of debris to wash up in the state of
California from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan
on March 11, 2011, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Coast Guard and local sheriff's office removed the ship after it
was spotted, and staff at Humboldt State University in
northwestern California helped translate the Japanese writing on
the boat. Officials then traced the boat to Takata High School,
located in Japan's Iwate prefecture, an area devastated by the
tsunami, NOAA reported.
The 20-foot (6 meters) skiff was covered in gooseneck barnacles, a
common type of filter feeder that makes itself at home on stuff that
floats in the open ocean. It wasn't immediately clear whether this
boat carried invasive species, which had been seen with other
pieces of Japanese tsunami debris that have washed up on the West
Coast.
One ship that recently washed onto the shore in Long Beach,
Wash., for example, contained an estimated 30 to 50 species of
plants and animals, including potential invasive species. In a sealed
compartment in the back of that ship, scientists found five live
striped beakfish — “a species native to coral reefs mainly in
Japanese waters (and) sometimes found in Hawaii, but certainly
not in the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest coast," NOAA
reported.
To date, 26 other pieces of Japanese debris have washed up in
Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska and British Columbia.
The tsunami dragged some 5 million tons of debris into the Pacific
Ocean, according to Japanese government estimates. Much of it
likely sunk shortly thereafter, but about 1.5 million tons floated
away from Japan's coast, and this tsunami debris is still washing up
far afield.
Email Douglas Main or follow him @Douglas_Main. Follow
us @OAPlanet, Facebook or Google+. Original article on
LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
• Photos: Tsunami Debris & Trash on Hawaii's Beaches
• Tracking Japan's Tsunami Debris (Infographic)
• Images: Japanese Dock Washes Ashore in Oregon
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