Northwest beaches are seeing the spike in debris likely tsunami-related that had been forecast in federal agency models of where some of the 5 million tons of debris washed out to sea in the March 2011 Japan tsunami would land.
The Washington State Marine Debris Task Force sent out a press release Wednesday explaining that because of the increase in marine debris such as Styrofoam, plastic bottles and floats, and other portable objects extra trash cans were being set out on many beaches.
"While it is unknown whether the latest items arriving on state beaches are related to the March 11, 2011, tsunami that devastated Japan," the press release said, "according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a portion of the debris that washed into the Pacific Ocean has been arriving on U.S. and Canadian shores, including Washington."
So far the extra trash bins have been placed at Ocean Shores, Surfside north of Long Beach, Grayland Beach State Park near Westport and the city of Long Beach's Bolstad Beach approach.
Alaska beaches hit hard
"See how you can see all the white Styrofoam floats on this point out here? Big globs of Styrofoam? That's all tsunami debris... And there's more Styrofoam out here. There's no question," Chris Pallister, president of the nonprofit Gulf of Alaska Keeper, told Alaska public radio.
The group was surveying the nearly 80 miles of pristine wilderness beach on Montague Island.
Last summer, the radio station reported, the state paid for an aerial survey to inspect 2,500 miles of Alaska's coastline. The survey identified tsunami debris all along the flight path.
"There was tsunami debris literally on every beach that was photographed," Elaine Busse Floyd, acting director of the division of environmental health, told KSKA. "They took over 8,000 pictures and it was more widespread and in greater quantities than we even expected."
Recent big debris
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Spike in debris, likely tsunami-related, covering NW beaches