Washington Dock due for Removal by Airlifting; More Large Debris Washes Ashore

Washington Dock to Be Removed via Airlift

The dock that washed ashore in December on a remote stretch of beach in the Olympic National Park now has a 'concrete' plan for removal (Clever, eh?).  Constructed of cement, rebar, and foam, the dock has presented itself as a formidable problem for park officials.  The dock is accessible only by trails, and is on a rocky stretch of shoreline that is too dangerous for boat removal.

The dock's removal plan is something out of an action movie:
Equipment will be flown in via helicopter, and the dock, which has sunk into sand and cobble due to winter weather, will be dug out and exposed.

Next, the dock will be cut into smaller pieces, with care to prevent the large amounts of foam which gave the dock its buoyancy, from escaping into the environment.  Foam pieces will be removed via airlift as soon as they are exposed.  Once the dock is in small enough pieces to transport, they will be airlifted to private land, where they will then be trucked off for disposal.

Dock washed ashore on a rocky stretch of the Olympic National Park. [Photo: komonews.com]

The area where this will be occurring- Goodman Creek to Jefferson Cove- will be closed to all public entry until the dock is removed.

No news yet whether this was successful.



Boat with Japanese Writing Washes Up In Southern Oregon

Yet another boat with Japanese writing has washed ashore in Oregon- this time further south in the coastal dune town of Florence.  The boat is about 24 feet long and was spotted by volunteers with the Surfrider Foundation at Muriel Ponsler Memorial Wayside Beach.

The boat hasn't been definitively identified as tsunami debris, but it very well could be.  It was removed and taken to the local landfill.

Workers remove boat washes ashore last week in Florence, Oregon. [Photo: Oregon Parks and Recreation Department]

Japanese Government Allocates Debris Funds

As noted in previous entries, Japan has allocated $5 million dollars to the United States (and an additional $1 million to Canada) for the cleanup of tsunami debris (far outreaching the US's own contribution of $150,000 divided between three states).  The $5 million is initially being divided by NOAA into $250,000 each for Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. 

The rest of the funds will be put into a reserve for use as the need arises, since the final effects and distribution of tsunami debris on US shores is still unknown.

Refrigerator-Sized Chunk of Debris removed from Hawaii's shores
 
On March 11th, a large piece of debris washes ashore in the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve in Maui, Hawaii by a member of the Citizen's Advisory Council for the reserve.

The piece of debris is not definitely Japanese, but was abnormally large for normal marine debris. The large box-shaped item, which was covered in non-Native mussels and barnacles, was removed by helicopter the next day.

Photo: Mauinews.com

All Cleaned Up and Nowhere to Go

Happy New Year to you, readers!

The first week of 2013 has brought about some interesting marine-related developments that are worth blogging about!

MINOR QUAKE
At midnight on January 5th, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck offshore southwest of Juneau, Alaska, prompting several tsunami warnings as further information was gathered about the quake.   While the quake caused a small amount of damage inshore, the tsunami warning was quickly canceled an hour later, as water levels barely rose 1 foot above normal tidal level.  This is due to the tectonics of the earthquake, which was a slip-strike quake- a form of earthquake where two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally, creating an earthquake but not much potential for an uplifting of water.  The worst tsunamis are generally created by megathrust or reverse fault quakes, where one portion of the Earth's crust is abruptly uplifted, forcefully moving the water column.  The force of this propagates outwardly in a wave pattern, eventually hitting surrounding shores.

The 2011 tsunamis were caused by a megathrust earthquake.

A small earthquake struck again near Juneau this morning (January 8th) with a magnitude of 4.0 near the same epicenter.

Normal, Reverse (megathrust) and Slipe-Strike faults. [Image: South Caroline Department of Natural Resources]

Simulated tsunami wave of a possible 8.0 Cascadia earthquake.  Note the outward propagation from the source, typical of most quake-generated waves. [modernsurvivalblog.com]

DOCK CLEAN UP
Further down the eastern Pacific shoreline, officials in Washington have finally been able to reach the dock that washed up on a La Push beach (See last week's post).  Removal efforts have yet been planned, but much like the dock that washed up on Agate Beach, OR, biological contaminants were a priority until removal efforts can take place. 

Like the Newport dock, animal and plant life was removed with scouring, scraping, burning and cataloging more than 400 pounds of organic material, including up to 50 species native to Japan.

Dock awash on La Push, WA beach.  The dock is almost identical to the one that washed ashore in Newport, OR. [kxro.wordpress.com]

Unlike the Newport, OR dock, this one is quite inaccessible for removal crews, and the area has been temporarily closed off to the public.  The dock was only reached by crews traveling miles of logging roads, trails, and shoreline (kxro.wordpress.com).  Solid cement and re-bar, this dock will likely have to be removed by boat, as vehicles are not a likely option at this point.

Until then, it will sit as a reminder of ecological difficulties yet to come.

Whatever floats your dock

Happy holidays!

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me- a new blog post on marine debris!

Though the author is back in her native Wyoming for the holidays, visions of tsunami debris still dance in her head. Indeed, the issue of debris has been prevalent in many peoples' minds as NOAA models predict the bulk of items will be hitting shores in the coming months.

The Japanese government has approved their proposed $5 million contribution to debris cleanup, far overshadowing the US's own contribution of $150,000 split between Washington, Oregon, and California.

Volunteers are gearing up to continue and ramp up beach cleanup efforts, and beachcombers who would otherwise have walked past garbage are beginning to look more closely at items that have found themselves onto local beaches. Indeed, the oncoming debris promises many interesting items, and there has even been conjecture that large numbers of those highly desirable glass fishing floats could wash ashore.

A beachcomber's dream realized: piles of Japanese fishing floats awash in Alaska [Photo: completely-coastal.com]

 ...

Glass fishing floats were originally manufactured in Scandinavia, but beginning in the early 1900's Japan began to produce them in large numbers. These nondescript glass balls came in a variety of sizes and were used as an inexpensive way (green floats were usually made from recycled sake bottles!) to keep fishing nets afloat. They sometimes would be dumped from vessels or escape their prescribed duties and find their way across the Pacific ocean.

When washed up on shore, they became a beachcomber's ultimate treasure. While most floats are green, there are also purple, yellow, blue, and orange floats which were mostly manufactured in the 1920's. China also created their own glass floats, which are generally larger than Japanese floats, and often molded rather than blown. They have a tell-tale seam running through them. Production of glass floats has all but halted, in lieu of Styrofoam (a biologist's worst enemy), aluminum, and cork. Due to the large numbers originally manufactured, these treasures are still being found.  Skilled beachcombers have secret locations where they may find hundreds at a time.

Chinese fishing float: note the fairly apparent seam from the mold process. [Photo: http://home.comcast.net/~4miller/]

The float optimist's theory:

Some believe that after glass floats fell into disuse, many certainly found their way into storage facilities that were washed away along the Japanese coast, and these may be bobbing their way over with the rest of the tsunami debris. It's unclear whether this is likely- much of the debris sank after the tsunami, and the idea of hundreds of thousands of glass floats sitting in derelict outbuildings is probably just wishful thinking- but a girl can dream.

-----------------------------------------------------

Dock, Interrupted.

On December 19, 2012, it was reported that a large object spotted floating off the Washington coast had washed up near Forks, Washington in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. 




 Further examination confirmed that it was a large dock, and it had landed in a particularly rugged section of the national park's 70 miles of shoreline.  Crews planned to travel along isolated trails to the dock in order to examine the dock for any potentially invasive species, put a tracking tag on it, and begin to develop a retrieval plan for the item.  However, winter storms prevented the crew from doing this, and a second effort was made on December 21nd to reach the dock.

Unlike the unfortunately 'lost' dock in Hawaii (which authorities failed to tag, and then disappeared after initial sightings), the debris team was able to put a tracking beacon on the object, which will aid in its recovery if it washes offshore once again.  If you happen to sight any significant tsunami debris, contact DisasterDebris@noaa.gov.

Click here for a short video of the dock by the Washington Marine Debris Team.

Visit the Marine Debris Flickr page for photos of debris thus far.

Washington State Task Forces

Due to increased volumes of debris, Washington State has established a number of tsunami debris resources.
I will post these here and also add them to the 'Resources' page (link on the right side of the page).

Washington has created what is called State Marine Debris Task Force, headed by the Military's Emergency Management Division.

A toll-free number has been established for those who find marine debris, either relating the tsunami or not:
1 (800) 922-6278

 Those who find non-hazardous debris (plastic, styrofoam, and other small manmade materials) are encouraged to remove and dispose of them.

If you find tsunami-related debris that is not easily removable, please take a photo, note the location, and email the information to: disasterdebris@noaa.gov.

Also interesting is the News Portal that the state has established:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2012/itn01_debris.html

The beautiful Olympic coast of Washington State. Photo courtesy of National Geographic.