Suddenly on Wednesday here in Oregon, a concrete and metal dock that measured 66 feet long, seven feet tall and 19 feet wide, washed ashore a mile north of Newport. A Japanese consulate official in Portland confirmed that the dock came from the northern Japanese city of Misawa, cut loose in the tsunami of March 11, 2011. More of this kind of thing is expected all along the West Coast, this Summer. No radiation was detected, but the marine organisms could be a real hazard to our native species. So far over a ton and a half have been removed. The next task is to decide what to do with the dock.
Alaska has been receiving debris for some time, but this is the first for Oregon.
Oregonian beach combers have always found treasures from Japan which have washed up along the shoreline, such as fishing floats, but this is a first.
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| Workers from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife remove marine organisms in order to prevent invasive species from a derelict Japanese dock that washed up on Agate Beach. (Credit: OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center) |
