Flotsam

Thursday, June 7, the rain stopped, more or less, so we decided to run over to see the recent arrival from last year's tsunami in Japan, a steel and concrete dock washed ashore two days before at Agate Beach.  It was not the first flotsam to hit the West Coast─a soccer ball washed up in Alaska, a Harley in a shipping container in B.C., a derelict ship sunk before it entered shipping lanes─but it was a first for Oregon.
       At Newport, the sky had broken clouds, the temperature was in the 60s, a slight breeze blew off the water.  We pulled into the parking lot at the beach, walked through the tunnel under the road, and out into a delightful afternoon.

Others had had the same idea, but Agate Beach is big enough that the crowd was hardly noticeable.  We could barely see the dock about three quarters of a mile toward Yaquina head so we started hiking.

The dock weighs an estimated 165 tons, measures 66 feet long, 19 wide and 7 tall, but in the surf it did not seem significant.  In fact, one report suggested that for comparison, if the Pacific were the size of a football field, the dock would be about the size of a human hair.

The dock is one of four installed in 2008 in the port of Misawa, Japan, that had broken loose, identified by a plaque fastened to the side.

One was found washed ashore in Japan, this one 5000 miles away in Oregon, and two are still missing.  At low tide, the dock is dry, but we arrived shortly after high so we couldn't get close.

An OSU researcher said that hitchhikers on the dock presented "a very clear threat" of invasive species, especially a small crab that has infested the East Coast but not yet the West, an edible seaweed known as wakame that has hit southern California but not yet Oregon, and a starfish, about 3 inches across, that has not before been found in the U.S.

 To prevent their possible spread, volunteers scraped the dock, as shown in Oregon Parks and Recreation photos, then seared the surface to sterilize it.

An estimated ton and a half of material was removed and when we arrived it was being buried on the beach, clearly within storm tide levels.

"Experts" suggested that burial "above the high water line" was the best way to safeguard the environment, but remember in 1970 when experts thought the best way to dispose of a dead whale was to dynamite it?  You should read Dave Barry's report of the consequences of that decision: http://theexplodingwhale.com/evidence/resources/day-barry-article/.

The dock was a nice excuse for a walk on the beach but it hardly rivaled other surprises from the sea we have examined in the last forty-odd years.  Laurel remembers when we visited 41 beached sperm whales south of Sea Lion caves, at the time, 1979, the third largest number ever recorded.

 More recently, Deb and I examined a Grey whale beached near Seal Rock─she could not get close downwind, the smell was so ripe.

And few Oregonians can forget the ship that simply wouldn't go away─the New Carissa, beached, hauled off to sea, broken loose, and beached again─before being hauled away again and torpedoed.

So─after looking at the Zeniya Kaiyo Service dock, we drove to the South Beach Deli for some of the best fish and chips on the Coast.  A pleasant afternoon.