Last week, a large dock was spotted along the Western Washington State coast and finally washed up on the Olympic National Park coastline today. Although it cannot yet be confirmed, it is suspected that it may be one of four pieces from the fishing port of Misawa that was swept away by the tsunami last year.
The Coast Guard started looking for the dock after it was spotted by a fishing boat last Friday and it finally washed ashore on a rugged coastline between La Push and the mouth of the Hoh River. Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire was all praises for the team that found it because it was like “looking for a needle in a haystack.” The next step now is for the federal, state and tribal agencies to figure out a way to reach the dock and investigate it for any invasive species that might have been imbedded in the raft.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program is the agency that is collecting and analyzing the debris that has washed up on US shores from the Great East Japan Earthquale and tsunami of 2011. NOAA has received 1,400 debris reports since then, but only 17 have been confirmed as tsunami debris. They are expecting the bulk of the debris from Japan has already arrived or will arrive in the next year or so.
[ via Seattle Times ]