Japanese tsunami debris not nearly as bad as predicted on second anniversary of quake

Monday marks the two year anniversary of the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and despite fears of massive debris fields piling up on the Washington coast, the fallout has been far lighter than many predicted.

An estimated 1.5 million tons of debris washed into the ocean following the tsunami that leveled whole towns and killed thousands on March 11, 2011. While there have been nearly 1,500 reports of tsunami debris since then, just 21 have been “confirmed” tsunami debris by U.S. and Canadian officials working with Japanese consulates, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We have not seen the quantities that people were fearful of, on the other hand we’ve some large pieces of Japanese property,” said Mark Clemons with Washington state Emergency Management.

The largest piece of confirmed debris is a 65-foot, 185 ton dock from the city of Misawa in Japan that washed up along a remote stretch of the Washington coast in Olympic National Park near Forks in December.

The Japanese government is paying the bulk of the $628,000 salvage effort, which will see the dock cut into pieces and airlifted out by a Port Townsend company.

Other notable tsunami debris has included a trailer and Harley-Davidson motorcycle traced back to its Japanese owner last April.

While numerous other items of Japanese origin like boats and buoys have washed ashore along the entire west coast, officials say it’s often impossible to separate it from the other marine debris that commonly soils the coastline.

The large debris fields that were seen floating in the Pacific months after the tsunami have since dispersed, according to NOAA. Officials say there are no estimates as to how much debris is still out there, but the remaining items are scattered across a vast ocean area about three times the size of the continental United States.

“We are likely to continue seeing more wash up for years,” said Clemons. “But I haven’t seen any forecasts that say we are going to get appreciably more than we’ve experienced so far.”

That’s good news for the environment. Clemons says one of the biggest fears were an inundations of invasive species attached to debris, causing widespread ecological problems. But he says there have been no adverse effects.

Even though they don’t expect any big problems going forward, state and federal officials continue maintaining a marine debris reporting line and keeping cleanup crews ready for rapid response, just in case.

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Washington Department of Ecology tsunami debris tracking website