MOVEMENTS OF OCEAN DEBRIS FROM MARCH TSUNAMI IN JAPAN
On March 11, 2011, a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami struck northern Japan. Tons of debris washed to sea. Large quantities of the floating plastics will persist for decades as they orbit the oceanic gyres, with the highest concentrations expected to wash up along the beaches of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, but the questions of when and what loom large on the horizon for all coastal areas.
As we anticipate the arrival on our coast of debris pulled out to sea in the 2011 Japanese tsunami, many questions and concerns have arisen in the minds of the public. These deal with everything from derelict “ghost” ships to what they might do with items they could encounter while beachcombing.
In an effort to encourage dialog between citizens and agencies about how to effectively deal with tsunami debris, Clallam Marine Resources Committee is partnering with Surfrider Foundation, hosting a Tsunami Debris workshop series and planning session led by renowned oceanographer, Curt Ebbesmeyer, to share information and science about tsunami marine debris.
Peninsula College is co-sponsoring an updated Tsunami Debris presentation by Curt Ebbesmeyer on Monday, May 21st at 7pm in the Little Theatre. Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information about the North Olympic Tsunami Debris Symposium, go to: http://tsunamidebrissymposium.wordpress.com/
Curt Ebbesmeyer, who holds a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Washington, is one of the experts to whom media around the world have turned for information on this oceanic disaster. In his presentation at Peninsula College, he will provide an overview of what marine debris can tell us and offer an update relating to his work on this latest world-spanning natural disaster.
Ebbesmeyer has spent his entire 40-year career studying ocean currents. From 1965 to 1974, he worked for Mobil Oil Corp, tracking icebergs over the Grand Banks where Mobil had placed its drilling rigs. If an iceberg got too close to a rig, he helped figure out how to tow it away. He then freelanced for Evans-Hamilton, an oceanographic consulting firm based in Seattle, until he retired in 2003. During that time, he studied eddies and ocean turbulence deep below the surface, helped track the 1989 Exxon Valdes oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and studied how the currents in Puget Sound in Washington affected sewage outflows, oil spills, and migrating salmon.
Today, Ebbesmeyer presides over a network of thousands of beachcombers who walk beaches all over the world, reporting their findings to Ebbesmeyer, who studies the information, thinks about what it all means and compiles the information into a newsletter, “Beachcombers Alert,” which is mailed to subscribers four times a year.
In 2009, he and Eric Scigliano coauthored Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How a Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. Scigliano is currently an editor at Seattle Metropolitan magazine and has reported on maritime and environmental issues for more than 20 years.