PORT ANGELES — More than tsunami debris and trash will be found on North Olympic Peninsula beaches during the next few weeks and months.
Lincoln High School students flung 300 drift cards into the Strait of Juan de Fuca late last week as part of the school’s 10th annual drift card study.
The effort is designed to track surface currents — the same currents that are distributing debris from the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami that is washing up on the Washington coastline.
A dozen Lincoln science students hurled 150 cards into the Strait from Ediz Hook on Thursday morning.
Later that afternoon, they tossed another 150 drift cards into the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
“In the past, there has appeared to be a drift/current pattern emerging for cards to initially travel east toward Dungeness Spit and Whidbey Island, then circle around toward the west to the San Juan Islands,” said Deb Volturno, science teacher at Lincoln High School.
The cards have been known to travel across the Strait to Vancouver Island, from where they cross the Strait again near Freshwater Bay, travel out to the Pacific Ocean around Cape Flattery and then drift down the coast, Volturno said.
“We have had cards reported as far away as the mouth of the Columbia River; Tofino, B.C., and almost to Vancouver, B.C.,” she said.
The times and location of the current card drops were chosen to closely repeat conditions during experiments from past years.
Anyone who discovers a card is asked to report the number of the card, where it was found and the date it was discovered.
Each card carries information on where to send the data.
“This year, we’re expecting more citizen interest due to flotsam already found from Japan’s 2011 tsunami,” Volturno said.
For more information on the drift-card project, phone Volturno at 360-565-1883 or e-mail at dvolturno@portangelesschools.org
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
