Tsunami dock washed up in Oregon (Astoria: living, gardening, beach)

[Baldrick]

I read this and thought some of you might be interested.

BBC News - Tsunami dock washed up in Oregon

"A huge metal dock that was swept away by last year's tsunami in Japan has washed ashore in the US state of Oregon.
Japanese consulate officials say it was one of four that broke loose from the port of Misawa and drifted thousands of miles across the Pacific ocean.
It was first spotted floating offshore on Monday and mistaken by several people for a barge."

[haggardhouseelf]

I was wondering why the "officials" (the story just said "officials" so I'm not sure exactly who they were talking about) at first tried to make it seem like there was no way it could have washed up from Japan.... even though there's obviously Japanese writing on it, and the OSU scientists said that the things living on it were native to Japan shores, not ours. They are coming around now, but why were they like that in the beginning?

Is that they didn't want crowds of people swarming the coast? (Unlikely, isn't it? Wouldn't that be good for business?) Or is it because the stuff from Japan is radioactive?

[JBtwinz]

That is one heck of a navigation hazard! Hopefully the other ones make it without incident

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

I was wondering why the "officials" (the story just said "officials" so I'm not sure exactly who they were talking about) at first tried to make it seem like there was no way it could have washed up from Japan.... even though there's obviously Japanese writing on it, and the OSU scientists said that the things living on it were native to Japan shores, not ours. They are coming around now, but why were they like that in the beginning?

Is that they didn't want crowds of people swarming the coast? (Unlikely, isn't it? Wouldn't that be good for business?) Or is it because the stuff from Japan is radioactive?

I would like to think that the "Officials," would be attempting to not speak until they had full information.

More likely it's the radioactive thing, or the fact that even such a large piece would still be very hard to track by satellite, and it poses a fairly huge risk to navigation. Especially to the host of smaller fishing boats off the Oregon and Washington Coasts.

My guess is that we'll see the Helicopter base at Astoria doing extra patrols to tag these big pieces before they become a problem.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

The invasive species aspects of this are quite troubling.

This item was large and washed up in a reasonably well traveled place. There may be other items no one even knows about, already washed up in WA, OR, Nor Cal ...

[SandHills]

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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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[haggardhouseelf]

Sandhills - OPB has a show called Oregon Field Guide, and on that show they often have stories that talk about invasive species, the problems that arise from their introduction, and what can be done or is being done to deal with the problem. If you are curious or interested about the issue of invasive species, you should check that show out: Oregon Field Guide — This Week's Episode · Oregon Public Broadcasting

On the last episode I watched of the show, one of the segments was talking about how goldfish are causing problems in our waters in Oregon. The common goldfish that people get as "pets"... it was a pretty interesting story:
http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/segments/view/1811

European Sea Grass or "beach grass" is also invasive... it is taking over the dunes: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0923203558.htm

And English Ivy is also a common invasive plant: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/948

[Kimballette]

This is a pretty interesting article about invasive species and about the dock with 1.5 tons of seaweed, mussels, barnacles, and starfish that were attached when discovered. My Way News - Invasive species ride tsunami debris to US shore

[SandHills]

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Thank you haggardhouseelf & Kimballette. Excellent info from following your links, sincerely appreciated.

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[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.