Cars whole houses & even severed feet in shoes

[seemslikeadream]

Cars, whole houses and even severed feet in shoes: The vast field of debris from Japan earthquake and tsunami that's floating towards U.S. West Coast

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:53 AM on 8th April 2011

A vast field of debris, swept out to sea following the Japan earthquake and tsunami, is floating towards the U.S. West Coast, it has emerged.

More than 200,000 buildings were washed out by the enormous waves that followed the 9.0 quake on March 11.

There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water.

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Adrift: A whole house bobs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. An enormous field of debris was swept out to sea following the earthquake and tsunami

Adrift: A whole house bobs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. An enormous field of debris was swept out to sea following the earthquake and tsunami

But even more grisly are the predictions of U.S. oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who is expecting human feet, still in their shoes, to wash up on the West Coast within three years.

'I'm expecting parts of houses, whole boats and feet in sneakers to wash up,' Mr Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has spent decades tracking flotsam, told MailOnline.

Several thousand bodies were washed out to sea following the disaster and while most of the limbs will come apart and break down in the water, feet encased in shoes will float, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

'I'm expecting the unexpected,' he added.

Journey: A graphic depicts the predicted location of the Japan debris field as it swirls towards the U.S. West Coast. Scientists predict the first bits of debris will wash up in a year's time

Journey: This graphic depicts the predicted location of the Japan debris field as it swirls towards the U.S. West Coast. Scientists predict the first bits of rubbish will wash up in a year's time


In three years time the debris field will have reached the U.S. West Coast and will then turn toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, circulating in what is known as the North Pacific gyre

In three years' time the debris field will have reached the U.S. West Coast and will then turn toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, circulating in what is known as the North Pacific gyre

Members of the U.S. Navy's 7th fleet, who spotted the extraordinary floating rubbish, say they have never seen anything like it and are warning the debris now poses a threat to shipping traffic.

'It's very challenging to move through these to consider these boats run on propellers and that these fishing nets or other debris can be dangerous to the vessels that are actually trying to do the work,' Ensign Vernon Dennis told ABC News.

'So getting through some of these obstacles doesn't make much sense if you are going to actually cause more debris by having your own vessel become stuck in one of these waterways.'

Debris soup: There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water off the coast of Japan

Debris soup: There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers and capsized ships bobbing around in open water off the coast of Japan

Vast: An aerial view of debris off the coast of Japan shows massive amounts of timber, tyres and parts of houses. The U.S. Navy said they had never seen anything like it

Vast: An aerial view of the debris shows massive amounts of timber, tyres and parts of houses. The U.S. Navy said they had never seen anything like it and warn it now poses a threat to shipping traffic
Predictions: Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle-based oceanographer, said he expected bits of houses, whole boats and even feet still in sneakers to wash up on the U.S. West Coast

Predictions: Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle-based oceanographer, said he expected bits of houses, whole boats and even feet still in sneakers, to wash up on the U.S. West Coast

Scientists say the first bits of debris from Japan are due to reach the West Coast in a year's time after being carried by currents toward Washington, Oregon and California.

They will then turn toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, circulating in what is known as the North Pacific Gyre, said Mr Ebbesmeyer,

Mr Ebbesmeyer, who has traced Nike sneakers, plastic bath toys and hockey gloves accidentally spilled from Asia cargo ships, is now tracking the massive debris field moving across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.

He relies heavily on a network of thousands of beachcombers to report the location and details of their finds.

'If you put a major city through a trash grinder and sprinkle it on the water, that's what you're dealing with,' he said.

Some of the debris to hit the West Coast may be radioactive following the devastation at Japanese nuclear power plants, according to James Hevezi, chair of the American College of Radiology Commission on Medical Physics.

'But it would be very low risk,' Hevezi said. 'The amount that would be on the stuff by the time it reached the West Coast would be minimal.'

Only a small portion of that debris will wash ashore, and how fast it gets there and where it lands depends on buoyancy, material and other factors.

Fishing vessels or items that poke out of the water and are more likely influenced by wind may show up in a year, while items like lumber pieces, survey stakes and household items may take two to three years, he said.

Strong: The graphic shows the currents in the Pacific Ocean that will push the debris around from Japan to the U.S. West Coast and back again

Strong force: The graphic shows the currents in the Pacific Ocean that will push the debris around from Japan to the U.S. West Coast and then back again
GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

Old flip flops, plastic toys, bags, children's pacifiers, toothbrushes, tons of plastic bottles and even whole yachts are just some of the rubbish floating in the so-called 'great pacific garbage patch'.

The debris was trapped by the rotational currents of the North Pacific Gyre, which draws it from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off North America and Japan.

It ends up bobbing about like a rubbish soup miles off the coast of California.

It is difficult to say just how big the area of ocean trash is, but some reports say it is roughly three times the size of Texas.

Oceanographer and race captain Charles J. Moore, discovered the GPGP on sailing through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race in 1997.

He was confronted, he said, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic.

U.S. oceanographer, Curt Ebbesmeyer, believes the debris has building up over 50 to 100 years and traced one piece of plastic he found back 60 years.

He has even heard reports of several dozen abandoned yachts floating in the area.

They get into trouble in bad weather, the owner is rescued but the yacht ends up being swept out to sea, never to be recovered, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

There is also a North Atlantic and Indian Ocean garbage patch.

If the items aren't blown ashore by winds or get caught up in another oceanic gyre, they'll continue to drift in the North Pacific loop and complete the circle in about six years, Ebbesmeyer said.

'The material that is actually blown in will be a fraction' of the tsunami debris, said Curt Peterson, a coastal oceanographer and professor of in the geology department at Portland State University in Oregon.

'Some will break up in transit. A lot of it will miss our coast. Some will split up and head up to Gulf of Alaska and (British Columbia).'

'All this debris will find a way to reach the West Coast or stop in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' a swirling mass of concentrated marine litter in the Pacific Ocean, said Luca Centurioni, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.

Much of the debris will be plastic, which doesn't completely break down. That raises concerns about marine pollution and the potential harm to marine life.

But the amount of tsunami debris, while massive, still pales in comparison to the litter that is dumped into oceans on a regular basis, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

He is also concerned for the welfare of some hundred thousand juvenile sea turtles, which are born in Japan and must make the journey across the Pacific to California.

They usually follow the path of North Pacific Gyre but swim around the north side of the garbage patch, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.

But now the turtles face a sea of debris from Japan on their journey.

Meanwhile Japan's meteorological agency says it has now lifted a tsunami warning for the north-eastern coast after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck offshore.

The quake hit about 11.30 pm local time. It has rattled nerves nearly a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened the same area of coastline.

[82_28]

Well, there goes ever getting to the bottom of the BC and Washington coast severed foot mystery.

Have any satellite images of this forming patch been released yet?

[anothershamus]

My mom lives in Astoria Oregon, I will let her know to be on the lookout for a yacht or two! Maybe that extra room for her house! That is some crazy shit! One of my friends is in the middle of the Pacific right now heading to the Philippines on a 65ft catamaran, when he lands I will ask him what he saw, if anything. I think he is below the current so he might miss it, but not the radiation.

[crikkett]

Ooh look at all that biofuel. Perhaps we'll finally develop that fleet of ocean-miners that I've been wishing for: the preservation of our beaches (and offshore oil rigs, and shipping lanes) demands it!

If humans can clear-cut a forest, we can clean up a garbage patch.

Go humans!

[82_28]

Humans can destroy the low-hanging fruit of nature (i.e. trees, fauna) and think they're building a civilization. But when it decides to destroy us, there is nothing we can do.

Too bad we've forgotten how to live with nature.

[Luther Blissett]

Rising plastic menace choking sealife
Stuart Gary
ABC
Monday, 9 July 2012

The amount of plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean has reached alarming levels, drastically impacting seabird populations, according to a new study.

Scientists at the University of British Columbia looked at populations of Northern Fulmars, a bird species distributed widely in the north Atlantic and north Pacific.

They found that more than 92 per cent of dead birds on beaches in British Columbia, Canada, and the US states of Washington and Oregon, had ingested significant quantities of plastic refuse.

"The Northern Fulmars are acting like canaries in coal mines, warning us about a growing problem," says zoologist Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the lead author of the study reported in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

"People think the waters off the coast of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon are pristine, sadly they're not," says Avery-Gomm.

"We're finding the conditions are now similar to those in the North Sea."

Compared with previous similar studies, the new research shows there's been a substantial increase in the number of birds ingesting plastic pollution over the past four decades.

"It's very sad and disturbing to see so much plastic being ingested by these birds," says Avery-Gomm.

"The birds usually have dozens of pieces of plastic in their stomachs, things like candy wrappers, twine and Styrofoam, causing lacerations of the stomach lining, stunted growth and mortality."

The researchers performed necropsies on 67 birds, finding each contained an average of 0.385 grams of plastic, equivalent to about five per cent of their body mass.

"I was shocked to find one bird with 454 pieces of plastic in her stomach," says Avery-Gomm.

Scientists are also concerned about the toxins leaching out of the plastics, which are also being consumed by the birds and other marine life.

"I think it's time for governments to look at legislation to ban single-use plastics like straws and wrappers," Avery-Gomm says.

Australian birds affected
Dr Jennifer Lavers from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic studies at the University of Tasmania says the new Canadian findings reflect her own research on Australian seabirds.

Fifteen years ago, 65 per cent of Australian marine birds were affected by plastics, and Lavers believes it could be closer to 85 per cent now.

Her research on short-tailed and flesh-footed shearwaters has found that one hundred per cent of the birds now suffer from ingested plastics.

"Unfortunately it's bad for both species," says Lavers. "All the birds suffer things like perforations and blockages of the digestive system, or ingested toxins leaching from the plastics."

"Last week, I removed 442 pieces of plastic from an albatross chick only a few months old."

Bigger problem
Lavers says the problem of plastic pollution is also impacting on many other marine animals. All seven species of Australian sea turtles are known to ingest and become entangled in plastics.

"Last year, a sperm whale washed up with 123 different kinds of fishing net in its stomach," Lavers says. "It's all very terrifying and exceptionally bad news all around."

"Governments should have legislated to ban plastic bags or impose fees decades ago. Now there's millions of tonnes of plastics polluting the marine environment."

"Urgent legislation and international co-operation is what's needed now," says Lavers.

Not going to happen.

[Iamwhomiam]

Oh! crikkett, I do hope you're joking about "look at all that biofuel."

A very bad idea to burn any waste for energy and insofar as this waste is radioactive, burning it, which does nothing to lessen its radioactivity and only helps to aerosolize the radioactive particles and make them easier to inhale, is insane.

Burning radioactive waste is almost as foolish as the very real clear-cutting of our southern forests to manufacture pellets for the Brits to burn to keep their bums warm.