Tracing the remnants of Japan’s tsunami

This scientific expedition was unusual in many ways,including the fact that it didn’t contain any scientists. Members of the volunteer crew hailed from six countries and lived on a yacht for a month in hopes of finding an array of debris they could blog about.

They are part of a citizens’ brigade that has been fanning out along the West Coast and in the Pacific,collecting and categorising thousands of items that were swept out to sea after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into coastal Japanese communities in March 2011. These citizen scientists aren’t waiting for government direction. Kayakers in Washington have taken it upon themselves to explore remote islands for refuse,surfers in Oregon have posted cleanup guidelines on local beaches,and scuba divers in Hawaii have retrieved debris off the coast of Maui.

Their efforts have quickly become the backbone of a national effort to better understand what is washing up along thousands of miles of coastline.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,which has domain over US waters,deployed a drone above Oahu in June to determine whether aerial monitoring is feasible. But NOAA has also been relying,in part,on volunteers. The agency has received more than 1,000 reports of marine debris on US beaches since the organisation started its marine debris hot line last December. Citizen scientists have taken an archaeological interest in the flotsam.

“The tsunami debris is something of a time capsule,” said Ken Campbell,a professional kayaker who,with two fellow guides,has toured Washington islands looking for lost items.

Japanese officials estimate that up to 1.5 million tons of debris is still afloat,and large items like a concrete dock and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle have already washed up along the coast of Oregon and British Columbia. “This situation is pretty unprecedented,” said Nancy Wallace,director of NOAA’s marine debris program. “We’ve never dealt with things moving across the ocean at this scale.”

Each day during a mandatory three-hour watch,crew members of the Sea Dragon were required to steer and look for oncoming vessels,and the citizen scientists recorded debris sightings in a logbook. The most avid pollution-seekers would stand for hours at the bow of the ship with a pool skimmer,trying to scoop up every floating fragment.

Campbell,along with two other professional sea kayakers,Jason Goldstein and Steve Weileman,started the Ikkatsu Project in May to examine islands off the coast of Washington that are virtually inaccessible by foot because of rugged coastal cliffs.

One of their biggest debris finds was a pile of lumber that included the lid of a potty-training toilet,a laundry hamper,several brown glass bottles and pieces of a washing machine marked with Japanese characters. Using a serial number imprinted on the wood,the kayakers were able to track the lumber to a mill in Osaka.

Debris from the tsunami is expected to wash ashore over the next several years. While it is a floating archaeology project for some,and a scientific experiment for others,it is also a tangible reminder of nature’s perils.

“I’m constantly struck by the idea that this is a very small planet,” Campbell said.