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Jeff Larson has seen just about everything wash up on the shores ofSanta Cruz: bottles, toys, shotgun shells, busted surfboards andfishing floats that looked like they had bobbed across the Pacific. When surging water driven by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan tore apart his city's harbor, he was there to scoop up thesplintered docks and broken boats that were heaved onto the sand. Now, more than a year after the catastrophe in Japan, Larson andfellow beachcombers up and down the West Coast are awaiting theflotsam that was set on a eastward course by the destructive surgeof water. GRAPHIC: Japan tsunami debris adrift Fishing floats, soccer balls, fuel tanks and crewless fishingvessels set adrift by the tsunami and pushed thousands of miles across the ocean by currents andwinds are already arriving on American shores. But this is not just driftwood. These fragments of people's livesare floating reminders of a great tragedy: The March 11, 2011,earthquake that unleashed tsunami waves over 100 feet high killedmore than 16,000 people, obliterated coastal communities and sweptmillions of tons of material out to sea. So as scientists track the debris, the government prepares for its arrival and expeditions sail to the middle of the ocean to meet it, Larson will patrol hisadopted beach with a five-gallon bucket and a grab stick, thetsunami on his mind. "I'll be looking for any signs of foreign material," the volunteerwith beach cleanup group Save Our Shores said, "and reporting it toanyone who cares." :: From Alaska to Northern California, beachcombers are reporting agrowing influx of aerosol cans, fishing floats and plastic fuelcans swept from Japan. There was a soccer ball with Japanese writing discovered in Marchon a remote Alaskan island and traced to a 16-year-old boy inJapan. In early April, the U.S. Coast Guard had to use explosives to sink a so-called ghost ship — a164-foot Japanese fishing vessel drifting through the Gulf ofAlaska. A corroded Harley-Davidson motorcycle packed in a container washed up on a Canadian island.The owner, located through the bike's license plate number, hadlost three family members in the tsunami, Japanese media reported.Although currents along the California coast may deflect much ofthe debris back toward Hawaii, environmental groups as far south asSan Diego are monitoring their shores just in case. In all, more than 200 bottles, cans, buoys and floats have beenreported to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. None of the debris is considered radioactive since it was draggedto sea before the nuclear disaster. But the agency has verified just a few traceable items as tsunamidebris. Much of the rest, officials say, is items so commonplacethey can't be distinguished from the flotsam that makes landfallevery day. "We have debris washing up on the shore all the time from Japan,China and other places and they probably have ours," says NirBarnea, West Coast coordinator of NOAA's marine debris program. Others say the U.S. government is downplaying the size andsignificance of the approaching debris. "Unfortunately 99.999% of debris doesn't come with a label,"retired Seattle oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer said. "Lawyers wantsomething with a street number or a boat name on it. Flotsam isn'tlike that, so basically you can't positively track anything back toJapan." Ebbesmeyer, who compiles reports from West Coast beachcombers on his blog, has tallied at least 500 foam and plastic floats and fuel cansthat have shown up from Japan since October. He said that's roughly167 times the normal rate. "They all started arriving at once from Kodiak, Alaska, to NorthernCalifornia, and that's very indicative of a disaster," he said. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Shoe Shine Brush Manufacturer , Non Woven Polypropylene Bags Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Non Woven Cloth today!
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