Empty Japanese Fishing Boat off Canada Heralds Debris Arrival

In the aftermath of tsunami, caused by an earthquake of 9.0 magnitude, that struck the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, 2011 it is most probable that the remains of the Japanese coastal prefectures will be dispersing across North American shores, sooner than estimated, Reuters informs.

This is confirmed by the recent emergence of what is known as the “Ghost ship”, an empty Japanese fishing boat, spotted 150 nautical miles south of the Queen Charlotte Islands, the western coast of Canada.

It is difficult to estimate the extent of the expected debris containing house appliances, vehicles and even vessels. Nevertheless, according to the information provided by the Japanese Government the overall amount rubble amounts to 5 million tons, out of which 70 percent is said to have sunk. The remaining 30 percent, 1.5 million tons is suspected to be floating around in an unknown direction.

“The early indication is that things sitting higher up on the water could potentially move across the Pacific Ocean quicker than we had originally thought,” said Nancy Wallace, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, which had forecast the appearance of tsunami debris on North American shores only in 2013.

However, the appearence of the ship “confirms that debris generated by the tsunami will make landfall on the west coast of North America,” a conservation biologist and marine debris specialist at the independent Ocean Conservancy,  Nicholas Mallos pointed out. He added that he plans to head to a one-month voyage from Tokyo to the Hawaiian island of Maui on June 1 to monitor the flow of the debris and determine the gravity of the situation on site.

According to NOAA, the debris is taking a route north of Hawaii, heading toward Alaska, Canada and the U.S. West Coast.

“We’re doing baseline monitoring of debris along the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska, working closely with locals, trying to get a handle on what baseline numbers are so that if there’s an upswing in debris we might be able to trace it back to the tsunami,” said Wallace.

The NOAA is urging the population to inform their local authorities about everything that appers ashore, especially when it comes to items that could be harmful but also of items that could have sentimental value such as jewlery or photographs.

The tsunami that swept the northeast coast of Japan last March took the tool of 16,000 casualties, while the fate of around three thousand people is still unknown.

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World Maritime News Staff, March 28, 2012