With millions of tons of tsunami debris floating from Japan toward West Coast beaches, including those of Washington state — and a rising tide of concern over the arrival of the debris — a presentation and series of workshops have been scheduled next week to help beachcombers understand what they will find.
Information provided at the events planned Monday through Wednesday in Port Angeles and Sequim will include the risks that may be associated with tsunami debris and what beachcombers should do with items they could encounter at the beach.
Massive tsunami waves more than 70 feet high inundated the eastern edge of Japan after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck off the coast March 11, 2011.
About a quarter of the 25 million tons of debris that was washed out to sea is expected to make landfall on West Coast beaches, said oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer at a forum in December.
He will give a presentation at 7 p.m. Monday in at the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.
That will be followed by three debris identification workshops hosted by the Clallam County Marine Resources Committee in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
The workshops are scheduled:
■ 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday — Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St., Sequim.
■ 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday — The Landing mall, upstairs conference room, 115 E. Railroad Ave., Port Angeles.
■ 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday — The Landing mall’s upstairs conference room, 115 E. Railroad Ave. in Port Angeles.
This event is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the Clallam Marine Resources Committee and NOAA.
Ebbesmeyer is the co-creator of the Ocean Surface Current Simulator — or OSCURS — computer model, which predicts the movement of ocean flotsam worldwide using known ocean current patterns and wind speed and direction information provided by the U.S. Navy.
Ebbesmeyer and James Ingraham have been using OSCURS to track tsunami debris and predict when various types of debris will arrive on shorelines and where it will land.
The first items that have come ashore have been high-profile, low-drag items that arrive more quickly because of winds that drive the items ahead of ocean currents, researchers have said.
In November, an unusual fishing float was found on a Neah Bay beach during a cleanup by Surfrider Foundation members.
Ebbesmeyer and Ingraham discovered the float in the Surfriders’ trash pile and identified it as the first piece of tsunami debris to have crossed the Pacific Ocean.
A team from the Japanese consulate in Seattle sent detailed photos of the float to Tokyo, where an expert said the float was the type used in oyster farming in Sendai, Japan, an area hard-hit by the tsunami.
Boat, motorcycle
In the past few months, larger items have been showing up on the U.S. and Canadian West Coast, including a derelict fishing boat and a shipping container holding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with Japanese license plates.
Both were positively identified as having been washed away from Japan.
The owners of the ship and motorcycle were found in Japan, alive and well.
Ebbesmeyer has said he believes most of the debris has or will sink to the ocean floor or float into the “garbage patch” areas where trash accumulates in the Pacific Ocean but that there are still millions of tons that may wash up on beaches, with the main field of debris arriving on the Washington coast in 2013.
Continuing updates on tsunami debris can be viewed at Ebbesmeyer’s website at www.flotsametrics.com.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
