Beach finds (home, refrigerator, landscaping)

[yinduffy]

I just saw an article that mentioned that stuff from Japan's Fukashima earthquake is washing up on the beaches in Hawaii. What interesting or unusual finds have you encountered on the shores?

[Grassyknoll]

Originally Posted by yinduffy

I just saw an article that mentioned that stuff from Japan's Fukashima earthquake is washing up on the beaches in Hawaii. What interesting or unusual finds have you encountered on the shores?

I have found a number of fishing floats, good usable lengths of poly rope, nets and other items. I am saving them up to do some nautical themed decorating in my landscaping. As far as anything from the tsunami? Well it's sort of hard to prove where things originate from but the items I have found that I assume came from the tsunami were a refrigerator door that had all sorts of labels that were written in Japanese and some long timbers with very intricate carpentry work (sort of like mortise and tenon woodwork). The timbers looked like they could have been rafters or support beams in a finely built structure.
It's really sad the amount of garbage that washes up on the beaches along the South end of the Big Island, I always try to take home some amount of washed up refuse when I visit the shore.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Originally Posted by Grassyknoll

I have found a number of fishing floats, good usable lengths of poly rope, nets and other items. I am saving them up to do some nautical themed decorating in my landscaping. As far as anything from the tsunami? Well it's sort of hard to prove where things originate from but the items I have found that I assume came from the tsunami were a refrigerator door that had all sorts of labels that were written in Japanese and some long timbers with very intricate carpentry work (sort of like mortise and tenon woodwork). The timbers looked like they could have been rafters or support beams in a finely built structure.
It's really sad the amount of garbage that washes up on the beaches along the South end of the Big Island, I always try to take home some amount of washed up refuse when I visit the shore.

Are you finding those glass floats? I love those! Do you go to Kamilo?

[Grassyknoll]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Are you finding those glass floats? I love those! Do you go to Kamilo?

No glass floats yet. Most are the round plastic or oval foam variety. I don't go to Kamilo, but have my own secret spots that seem to get a good amount of washed up items.

[Ellwood]

"some people see more on a walk on the beach than others see in a trip around the world." - Olson

[flipsidem]

i was in Newport, OR recently. Right next to the piers in the harbor they have a section of a dock that made it all the way from Japan after the sunami. The piece on display is a very large cube, like 10'x10'x10', and it appeared to be made mostly of concrete. The section of dock that it came from was really, really big, like 100' long and 20' wide. The giant section of dock just washed up on the beach there in Newport one day. The piece by the pier is used as a memorial and as a way to educate people about the threat of a sunami on the Oregon coast. It blew my mind to see that something like that made it all the way over from Japan.

[yinduffy]

I remember reading about the different-colored glass floats the Japanese fishermen used to hold up their nets. It was the highlight of someone's day to find a good one. I guess modern plastics have taken over.
I don't suppose that Hawaii sees much driftwood. Are the islands in an area to catch much ocean debris?

[Irish Eyes_Mrs. Z]

Originally Posted by yinduffy

I remember reading about the different-colored glass floats the Japanese fishermen used to hold up their nets. It was the highlight of someone's day to find a good one. I guess modern plastics have taken over.

I remember when my sister found one off the northern Oregon coast when we were growing up in the '70s. What a thrill it was! I have her float, now, as she left it at home when she got married and moved out. Hard to believe we've had that float for 42 years!

Nowadays, I hear that the best place to find them are on the Aleutian Islands. I don't know this from experience, though. I have no desire to ever visit Alaska....

Another semi-decent place to find them is here in Lincoln City during Antique Week in mid February. Besides the usual art floats put out by the city 7 months of the year and during special events, they also purchase original Japanese floats from antique shops around town, and release 300 of them "into the wild" along the beaches during those 10 days in February, between high tide and the cliffs or rip-rap lines. I found one of them a couple of years ago in a sand dune. I was very pleased :-).