2/20/12
A black float recently spotted at Mad River Beach has stirred up some questions surrounding Japan's tsunami debris and when it will make its way to our shores.
The find coincides with state and county officials' efforts to form a plan for any upcoming increase in debris due to the tsunami triggered by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan on March 11.
Officials are expecting to develop a response in the next month.
Mike Kelley, a fisheries biologist and an avid beachcomber, found the float -- the size of a 55-gallon drum -- two miles south of the Mad River Beach parking lot near Arcata in late January and reported it to the authorities. Kelley said he received a marine biology news alert regarding similar floats washing ashore in Washington and Oregon.
Humboldt State University geology professor Lori Dengler said officials are still reviewing data, but it is very unlikely that what beachcombers are finding right now came from the tsunami.
”Debris with Japanese writing shows up on our beaches all the time. ... The odds that it is from the tsunami are about the same as winning the Big Spin,” she said.
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration officials said they are aware of Kelley's find and, while they can't confirm it is specifically from the Japan tsunami incident last year, they have not ruled it out.
Kelley also reported the finding to Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle resident who has been following flotsam -- everything from Nike sneakers to plastic bath toys -- since the 1960s. Ebbesmeyer said Kelley's sighting is the first he's received from California.
Ebbesmeyer's prediction of the debris making its way to North America's western shores -- which is based on modeling and beachcomber reports -- puts the first arrival at a faster pace than NOAA estimated. According to Ebbesmeyer, 38 beachcombers from California to Alaska reported sightings of 260 buoys since October, with 188 of those seen along the coast of Vancouver Island. He's been chronicling the finds at www.beachcombersalert.blogspot.com.
”Part of the difference is that NOAA doesn't really deal with the debris on the beach as I have been doing it for 20 years, and I have a network of beachcombers around the world sending me information,” Ebbesmeyer said.
