NEAH BAY — A float found in Neah Bay, suspected as being the first debris reaching the Olympic Peninsula from the March 11, 2011, earthquake tsunami in Japan, has been confirmed as coming from Japan.
The buoy was examined by members of the Japanese Consulate in Seattle in January, and photographs and measurements of the buoy were sent to Tokyo to be examined by experts.
“It has been confirmed that this type of buoy has been manufactured by a Japanese company and used at oyster farms in the Hohoky and Hokuriky regions of Japan,” said an official statement released by Japanese Consul Tetsuo Kobayashi.
However, whether the buoy was ripped loose by the tsunami or was adrift before the seismic event cannot be confirmed, the statement said.
Seattle oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham announced the find during a December lecture at Peninsula College in Port Angeles.
Since the Neah Bay discovery, several more of the black, 55-gallon-drum-sized floats have been discovered on Pacific beaches of the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island.
About one-fourth of the 100 million tons of debris from the Japanese tsunami is expected to begin to make landfall on Pacific beaches next year, Ebbesmeyer said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.