Japanese Tsunami: Northwest Dodged 'Proverbial Bullet:' New Study

NEWPORT, OR– It was 2012 – 15 months after a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami had killed more than 15,000 in Japan – and Gayle Hansen was in the parking lot of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offices in Newport. The topic of discussion was invasive species.

Hansen, a marine scientist with Oregon State University, and the ODFW staff could already see that large amounts of debris from Japan were washing ashore along Oregon and Washington – researchers would later determine that about 30 percent of the nearly 5 million tons of debris that washed out to sea from Japan had been buoyant enough to float.

As Hansen and the others could see from a large concrete dock that had washed up at Agate Beach, the threat was very real.

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"They decided it was imperative to remove not only the dock, but also all future tsunami debris that washed ashore on Oregon beaches as soon as possible after landing in order to reduce any possible species invasion," Hansen says.

"That turned out to be an extremely wise decision."

The concrete dock the largest piece of debris from the tsunami to wash ashore, was found to have 31 different species of marine algae on it.

Hansen and researchers from Japan have been studying the algae that washed ashore in an effort to determine whether any of the species were able to invade the waters along the Pacific Northwest.

While they were able to identify 84 different species from Japan, none have taken hold, leading the researchers to conclude that Oregon and Washington "may have dodged the proverbial bullet."

Some of the species were considered extremely dangerous to the area's ecosystem if they had been able to establish a presence.

"The State of Oregon was able to remove about 90 percent of the derelict and damaged vessels from Japan that arrived along Oregon beaches – and most of the vessels were immediately removed from the surf zone over a period of 24 hours or less," Steven Rumrill of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said

After ODFW was done, volunteer groups including SOLVE and Surfriders cleaned up much of the smaller debris.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says that they had similar successes there.

Hansen and the other say that while they can't be 100 percent certain for several more years, the outlook appears to be good.

Photo of concrete dock at Agate Beach via Oregon State University.