I received a very interesting email from Bill Koepke last week and while it was quite long, I've edited it down to one page and plan to post it on here. Has to do with rubbish from the Japan quake washing up on our beaches. It was a fascinating read for me as I love going to the beach and lookin' for "stuff."
A vast field of debris, swept out to sea following the Japan earthquake and tsunami, is floating towards the U.S. West Coast. Cars, whole houses and even severed feet in shoes. More than 200,000 buildings were washed out by the enormous waves that followed the 9.0 quake on March 11.
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.
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.
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. Authorities rely heavily on a network of thousands of beachcombers to report the location and details of their finds.
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.
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.
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. 'The material that is actually blown in will be a fraction' of the tsunami debris. '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. 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.
Port Angeles doesn't have great beachcombing beaches but if I lived in Port Townsend, I'd try to get out there at least a couple times a week to walk around.
Have you ever used Google maps or Google earth to surf around and look at stuff from the air? It's kind of a fun pasttime. I recently "flew" over Chetzemoka Park and North Beach and Fort Worden. Fascinating.
I had a fairly quiet weekend. Made 4 potholders and an apron yesterday and then took in a movie with Jenni. It had a really good rating on IMDB and I was eagerly looking forward to it.
I'm interested in politics so I thought 'The Ides of March' would be worth the money. Well, sad to say, I left the theatre disappointed. I like a lot of the actors (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, and Ryan Gosling) but the ending totally sucked. Kind of like the author was tired and didn't want to write anymore so he just stopped. Those kind of movies really tick me off!
The theatre itself (upstairs at the Lincoln in downtown P.A.) was fairly empty of viewers. Maybe
20 at the most.
The previews included the latest Twilight movie and Liam Neeson in Grey Wolf. Jenni wanted to see Twilight and I wanted to see Wolf. We stopped at Safeway afterwards (7 p.m.) and man, was the place empty. I liked it.
I listened to an audio book while sewing yesterday....The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Makes me want to see if I can't find the movie and rewatch it. I'm reading 'Islands in the Stream' by Hemingway now. The first part seems familiar and I wonder if I haven't read it already.
I find it interesting that Mitt Romney is running a tv campaign bringing out all the Mormans. I suppose it's necessary because there's a huge segment of population that thinks the Morman religion is a sect. I know some parts of our country are more heavily into religion than others--like the Bible Belt, for example. We are a diverse country, that's for sure. I don't have any problem with a Morman being president but everytime I see yet another commercial about it, I'm reminded that Mitt has money to burn. I don't suppose there's any chance of a person winning who isn't rich, though, so I'll just have to deal with it. A poor man (or woman) is never gonna be the head of the United States.
Funny the way we've evolved over this issue. I remember when I was a senior in high school and Kennedy was running. The fact he was a Catholic was actually discussed as a mark against his popularity and ability to win. We've come a long ways, I guess.
Trivia for today:
When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight (I want to know how we know this?)
In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed
Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside
And here's Johnny Cash in the 60's and in later life...
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