Tag: debris

Tons of Japan’s Tsunami Debris Due on West Coast
Environment, News

Tons of Japan’s Tsunami Debris Due on West Coast

The best analogy for the impacts of tsunami debris, explains Ebbesmeyer, is the 150-ton concrete-and-metal dock that washed up on the Oregon coast. More than 50 feet in length and about ten feet “tall,” less than a foot of it was visible in the water. Like the debris field, it was almost impossible to spot in open water, a hazard to marine navigation, and a Trojan horse of sorts: the dock was carrying more than 90 different, potentially invasive, species that were destroyed. Continue reading Tons of Japan’s Tsunami Debris Due on West Coast

“What’s the Plan for Tsunami Debris?” You Ask
Environment, News, Politics

“What’s the Plan for Tsunami Debris?” You Ask

Last week, a 150-foot Japanese fishing boat (outfitted for squid-fishing, to be precise) was spotting drifting, unmanned, about 150 nautical miles off B.C.’s Queen Charlotte Islands, and its arrival raised, more urgently, the question of what is to be done about the bulk of the debris when it arrives. (“Bulk” in abstract sense; the ocean will have had the chance to break up the debris into smaller and smaller pieces, scientists think.) Because not much is being done. Continue reading “What’s the Plan for Tsunami Debris?” You Ask