Tsunami dock washed up in Oregon (Newport: move, food, best)

[seashelly]

I say, clean the dock up, put it in a public area, slap a designated Japanese Tsunami Debris plague on it and make it a touri$t magnet for Newport.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by seashelly

I say, clean the dock up, put it in a public area, slap a designated Japanese Tsunami Debris plague on it and make it a touri$t magnet for Newport.

Hey, you might be on to something here. They could set up Japanese themed food trucks around the area, too... and maybe have a koi kite festival in May... and maybe host sumo wrestling events on the beach!

[bghouse]

Oh please no.... the traffic with visitors to this has been insane :-) Just going out for groceries is an exercise in patience (I live right across the street from where the dock washed up). I think they said we had over 12,000 visitors last weekend. I guess I'm getting a taste of tourist season - but wow!

[Hawk J]

It Might be moved soon. I heard summthin on the news, a company bid $150k to move the dock.

[YellowHorse]

Originally Posted by SandHills

.
Am really trying to understand the problem presented by the "invasive species" riding along on flotsam to our shores though am coming up short. Here's why...

Just over the last several thousand years alone it's clear that there have been a fair amount of such events, dozens even, the resulting debris always ends up washing up on far distant shores. This has been going on for longer than we can get our heads wrapped around, the pot getting stirred & non-native species intermingling with local organisms.

It seems to me that to spend so much time & effort on ridding the invasive species on one large dock that has washed ashore are good intentions that will in the end provide no substantial relief in this regard.

Am not concerned with the prospect of the flotsam being radioactive though. The tsunami hit, the destruction occurred & washed the massive amount of debris into the ocean... & then the nuclear reactors began subsequently melting down. Much more concern over fish & living organisms ingesting radioactive materials, winding up in the food chain.


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The dock would not be radioactive itself, but the fact that it landed on our west shores is a little disconcerting. It means that the currents are possibly bringing radioactivity into our shores. There were reports of milk being produced on the west coast had slight radioactivity to it (radioactive fallout onto the fields of grass/hay that were being fed to the cattle got transferred to the milk they produced). I would like to see testing of the sea life to see if the radioactivity levels are unsafe.

Invasive species are a contentious point to many. I loath many introduced species myself, often costing me money and causing me heartache. But in the larger scheme of things, they are part of nature.
If it had been some driftwood that washed up onshore and introduced a species, we may have been scratching our heads and blaming some poor unknown soul that must have ignored quarantine procedures for bring in controlled biologicals. But one cannot miss a large, obviously man made structure with a plethora of possibly new invasive species to contend with. Invasive species are not fun to deal with, often choking out natives and costing much to try and control and seems a disaster. In a virgin environment, a foreign species that floats in on an ocean or air current often results in the destruction/extinction of one or more of the natives. It has happened with regularity over the ancient times. The usual natural vector is some animal/plant that drifts ashore or some bird, bat or insect that comes in from some freak air current. But it can occur through continental drift, a much slower less thought of vector. Mammalian carnivores took over and replaced large flightless avian carnivores as continents came together and the native animals crossed new land bridges and intermingled, the native avian carnivores could not compete with the mammalian intruders so now we can only see their bones in some natural history museum.
Man caused introductions are now the most common means for species to travel the world in the recent history of the world. And introduction of invasive species will continue, through both natural and man made vectors, even if we try to manage it, this process will continue. It occurred long before humans evolved and will do so long after humans cease to exist.

[Minervah]

I think the difference between past invasive species and objects like the dock from Japan bringing new invasive species is the idea that there are more of them at one time being able to hitch a ride on large man-made objects rather than just floating on their own through the ocean.

It's too overwhelming for Mother Nature to accommodate.

[YellowHorse]

I would think many foreign invaders would not take root/get a foot in edgewise and end up a dead end. A lone species coming ashore would either need to be able to breed with native relatives (and thus diluted into the existing gene pool) or need to be accompanied by a companion of the opposite sex. Plants may not find the conditions needed to propagate. Even if an organism is lucky enough to land in an area compatible with their former environment and some colonies may get started, they can still get throne some environmental curve ball (as in the colonies of Quaker Parakeets that were gaining a foothold in Portland, but have declined over the last 20 years and never become a threat to the native species). It's that odd one species that is supremely adapted to the new environment and compete with a native species that are the bane of those affected.

[haggardhouseelf]

Saw the dock. OMG! The dock was cool I guess - big hunk of metal and cement plopped on the beach. But OMG! I've never seen so many people on the beach at one time when there's no event like a kite festival or sandcastle building event going on. Crazy.

They should start plopping all kinds of crud on the beach that they don't know what to do with, put some Japanese words on it... just say it came from Japan. Presto - tourist magnet.

Good grief!

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

Saw the dock. OMG! The dock was cool I guess - big hunk of metal and cement plopped on the beach. But OMG! I've never seen so many people on the beach at one time when there's no event like a kite festival or sandcastle building event going on. Crazy.

They should start plopping all kinds of crud on the beach that they don't know what to do with, put some Japanese words on it... just say it came from Japan. Presto - tourist magnet.

Good grief!

Someone oughtta invest in a mobile burger/hot dog/taco stand on the beach. $$$$$$$$

[minibrings]

Originally Posted by Ms_Christina

Invasive species have a chance to come so far without any man made debris because of the Tsunami. I say, dismantle the barge sell the scrap metal and send the proceeds over to Japan to help disaster relief funding.

But technically its the property of the japanese port.. Isnt this stealing?
And invasive species have already reached the US prior to the tsunami. Id be most concerned about radiation levels.