Tsunami debris

[oldsalt]

During the annual beach clean-up last weekend, we found several things of definite Japanese origin, water bottles with hirigana and kanji writing being the most common. One of the people in our group found this plaque etched in copper. He is showing it to a native speaker to get a better translation, but it appears to be an award given by a fishing processor located near the epicenter.

We were working on the Quinault reservation north of Moclips.
The finder hopes to find the owner and return it. Sort of a message in a bottle.
-Curt

[Emilyrc]

Cool find, I hope the plaque finds its home again.

[spatman]

Very cool! Hope it makes it way back to the recipient.

[selkie]

The plaque is a cool find. A few years before the Tsunami I was working on a project on the Northern Oregon Coast. As part of our routine each day we would pick up as much trash as we could. Plastic bottles with Asian writing were the most abundant thing we picked up. I wonder if their beaches are full of our trash?

[CaptnJack]

I wonder if their beaches are full of our trash?

Not really, the dominant currents don't really go that way. our trash goes south then west and probably concentrates in the North Pacific Gyre


That plaque is cool, with a big piece of copper I'm surprised it floats?!?

[oldsalt]

The copper sheet was mounted to a board. My 12 year old granddaughter picked it up to throw it in her trash bag. When she turned it over and saw the plaque mounted to it, she gave it to another member of our group. Years ago, we lived in a beachfront house in Japan. Walking the shoreline was a daily event for us. I never saw anything but Japanese flotsam on the beaches there. Some of the Japanese stuff we find may have come from their boats which fish off our coast.
-Curt

[sitkadiver]

That is a cool find Curt. We've also been getting debri here in Southeast Alaska.

NPPI has their big office in Seattle and they usually have Japanese fish buyers there who are responsible for the Alaska processors and many of the Seattle based boats that fish in the Western Gulf and Bering Sea. If you're looking for some good insight, they could probably help you in short order.

http://www.northpacificseafoods.com/

Good luck and thanks for sharing.