A big black float that was thought to be in the first wave of tsunami debris to be found on beaches in the U.S. has been identified as having come from Miyagi prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit by the March’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, according to Japanese newspaper The Mainichi Daily News.
Yuuki Watanabe, a senior official of a fisheries cooperative association in the Miyagi prefecture, examined a photograph of one of the floats that was found and confirmed it looks like those used in oyster cultivation in the Miyagi area,The Mainichi Daily News said.
Miyagi prefecture is in northeastern Japan and includes the hard-hit city of Sendai.
The location of where the float was found was not reported, however, such findings have been made in Neah Bay.
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 in Japan on March 11, Ebbesmeyer said at a Peninsula College lecture Tuesday.
Neah Bay, elsewhere
Since the announcement, more floats, each about the size of a 55-gallon-drum, have been reported from Neah Bay to Vancouver Island. Many of those who found the floats said they began seeing them in late November.
In LaPush, where two floats were found last month, the Quileute Tribe has organized a response to the arrival of the tsunami debris.
“We are asking that community members and visitors please contact law enforcement or the local Coast Guard if they find anything that may have possibly traveled to our shore as a result of the Japanese tsunami,” said Jackie Jacobs, tribal spokeswoman.
In other areas, phone local police, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office or Olympic National Park rangers to report suspected tsunami-related debris.
Over next year
About a quarter of some 100 million tons of debris from Japan is expected to begin to make landfall on Pacific coastlines in the next year, Ebbesmeyer said.
Most of the debris is still in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, traveling on average seven miles per day, but some lighter, windblown flotsam travels faster, as much as 20 miles per day, he said.
Neah Bay is located on a cape at the northwestern tip of the continental U.S., at a point where two major east-flowing currents split, one north to Alaska and another south toward California. It is a dropping-off point for flotsam caught in those currents, the researchers said.
Much of the debris snagged by currents leading into the Strait of Juan de Fuca eventually will wash up on beaches from the mouth of the Elwha River to Port Townsend, they said.
Many beaches on the Pacific Coast, from Alaska to California, are likely to accumulate significant amounts of tsunami debris over the next few years.
Eventually, huge rafts of debris containing anything from boats to houses — and possibly human body parts — could wash up on western shores, Ebbesmeyer said.
Email Ebbesmeyer at CurtisEbbesmeyer@comcast.net for assistance in translation and to track tsunami debris back to its Japanese origins.
People should also be aware of the possibility of radiation contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Ebbesmeyer said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.