Wash. dock resembles one from Japan found in Oregon
A scientist who examined the dock that recently washed ashore on Washington's Olympic Peninsula says it looks just like the one that came ashore on a central Oregon beach last summer, suggesting it also is a piece of tsunami debris from Japan.
John Chapman, an assistant professor of fisheries at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center, said Friday the Washington dock found earlier this month has the same dimensions and configuration as the one found near Newport, Ore. The Oregon dock broke loose from a Japanese fishing port in 2011.
"It was identical so far as we could tell," said Chapman, who was one of the eight people who hiked through old growth forest and crossed a rain-swollen creek on Dec. 21 to examine the dock. "It has the same set of cleats. It has the same rollers, the same shape, dimensions, the same bumper configuration."
But there was no commemorative plaque on the dock found in Washington, like the one in Oregon had, to identify where it came from, he said. A stainless steel plaque identified it as one of four owned by Aomori Prefecture that broke loose form the port of Misawa during the March 2011 tsunami.
Efforts to trace and confirm the origin of the Washington dock have not yet been successful. The Coast Guard spotted it Dec. 18 on a remote stretch of wilderness beach on the northwestern tip of Washington protected by the Olympic National Park.
The Washington Ecology Department said nearly 30 species found on the dock have been identified, and none of them poses a high risk of becoming invasive.
Chapman said just the lower number of species and individual organisms on the Washington dock make it a far lower risk than the Oregon dock.
Also, the crashing surf on the Washington shore is not a hospitable habitat for species native to placid pot waters in Japan, experts say.
So far, there has been no sign any of the Japanese species on the Oregon dock has established in Oregon, Chapman said. However, there is no formal monitoring going on.
The Oregon dock measured 66 feet long, 19 feet wide and 7 feet high and weighed 165 tons before it was cut up and hauled away. Volunteers scraped off 2 tons of seaweed and creatures clinging to it and ran blowtorches over the surface to sterilize it.
Chapman said a flooded stream stopped them from their first attempt at reaching the Washington dock. But they returned the next day, wearing dry suits provided by the National Park Service, and were helped across by a search and rescue team. They used a rope to descend to the beach. The dry suits proved helpful on the beach, where they were dodging 16-foot waves.
"The dock was being pulverized on the rocks there," Chapman said. Styrofoam was coming out where the concrete had fractured.
John Chapman, an assistant professor of fisheries at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center, said Friday the Washington dock found earlier this month has the same dimensions and configuration as the one found near Newport, Ore. The Oregon dock broke loose from a Japanese fishing port in 2011.
"It was identical so far as we could tell," said Chapman, who was one of the eight people who hiked through old growth forest and crossed a rain-swollen creek on Dec. 21 to examine the dock. "It has the same set of cleats. It has the same rollers, the same shape, dimensions, the same bumper configuration."
But there was no commemorative plaque on the dock found in Washington, like the one in Oregon had, to identify where it came from, he said. A stainless steel plaque identified it as one of four owned by Aomori Prefecture that broke loose form the port of Misawa during the March 2011 tsunami.
Efforts to trace and confirm the origin of the Washington dock have not yet been successful. The Coast Guard spotted it Dec. 18 on a remote stretch of wilderness beach on the northwestern tip of Washington protected by the Olympic National Park.
The Washington Ecology Department said nearly 30 species found on the dock have been identified, and none of them poses a high risk of becoming invasive.
Chapman said just the lower number of species and individual organisms on the Washington dock make it a far lower risk than the Oregon dock.
Also, the crashing surf on the Washington shore is not a hospitable habitat for species native to placid pot waters in Japan, experts say.
So far, there has been no sign any of the Japanese species on the Oregon dock has established in Oregon, Chapman said. However, there is no formal monitoring going on.
The Oregon dock measured 66 feet long, 19 feet wide and 7 feet high and weighed 165 tons before it was cut up and hauled away. Volunteers scraped off 2 tons of seaweed and creatures clinging to it and ran blowtorches over the surface to sterilize it.
Chapman said a flooded stream stopped them from their first attempt at reaching the Washington dock. But they returned the next day, wearing dry suits provided by the National Park Service, and were helped across by a search and rescue team. They used a rope to descend to the beach. The dry suits proved helpful on the beach, where they were dodging 16-foot waves.
"The dock was being pulverized on the rocks there," Chapman said. Styrofoam was coming out where the concrete had fractured.
'Volunteers scraped off 2 tons of seaweed and creatures clinging to it and ran blowtorches over the surface to sterilize it.'
If folks are volunteering, where's all that money going? Do you really expect us to believe they weigh it? On what? A shovel full at a time?
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'The dry suits proved helpful on the beach, where they were dodging 16-foot waves.'
You can't be serious...
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This has to be one of the most absurd articles I've read at KOMO all year.
They knew this was going to happen and so my thought is why make a big issue out of it everytime one comes ashore. Do what needs to be done and let it go at that.
If enough of these come over here, we can use them to build the new floating bridge. They've already proven they can float!
It took a Scientist to figure this out?
By default then, I infer from this article that there could be millions of minimally invasive critters on this dock. BTW, what is the annual salary of a marine debris team member?
Good thing we have the Tsunami Rapid Response Strike Team to respond at a moment's notice tsunami debris is detected and breaches our coastal defense system. The TRRST is able to deploy and repel from Blackhawk helicopters or even HALO parachute insertion. Washington is safe once again.
Wow, thanks Washington tsunami debris experts we sure dodged a bullet there...
They need to get a really big tug offshore with a long cable attached to the dock so at the next high tide it can be hauled off the beach and taken somewhere for proper disposal. Unfortunately there is not a fund to pay for an expensive operation like that. Instead, we spend billions on weapon systems the military doesn't want but the contractors with their hundreds of lobbyists do.
 @jcman But, we can afford a "Tsunami Rapid Response Strike Team" who can "measure" the problem but do nothing about it.