For most of the debris filling more than 3,000 “super sacks” stacked on a barge that will dock in Seattle on Friday, it’s been a long tragic journey.
A “significant amount” of the hundreds of tons of marine debris collected off the remote coasts of Alaska and Canada was carried into the ocean by the 2011 tsunami that devastated much of the Japanese coastline.
It’s estimated that more than 5 million tons of debris was carried into the Pacific by the earthquake-caused tsunami. NOAA estimates that 70 percent of the debris sank just off the coastline but some 30 percent drifted out to sea.
“Tsunami debris began arriving on U.S. shores in the winter of 2011-2012 and has continued washing ashore in a scattered fashion ever since, mixing in with chronic marine debris,” NOAA reports.
The cleanup effort in Alaska and Canada was primarily funded by the government of Japan.
The Associated Press reported Thursday:
The barge arrived in Kodiak July 15, and made its way down the coastline, stopping to pick up debris loaded by helicopter from rocky beaches. The last stop in Alaska was at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. A stop also was made in British Columbia.
The effort is being funded partly with $900,000 from Alaska’s share of a $5 million gift from the Japanese government for states affected by tsunami debris.
According to a news release by Waste Management:
A two-year, multi-national shoreline cleanup project comes to one of its final stops during its month long round-trip journey on Friday, August 7, 11:00am. The football field sized barge … will arrive and unload the super sacks of marine debris on Waste Management’s Seattle dock.
In a few weeks, local environmental volunteer groups will sort the material for recycling at an event coordinated by Parley for the Oceans, a national non-profit focused on addressing threats to the world’s oceans. Material Innovation company, Bionic Yarn will then transform the sorted marine debris plastic into high-performance textiles and polymers. All remaining debris will travel via train to the Columbia Ridge landfill.
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1Ury1Vb
For most of the debris filling more than 3,000 “super sacks” stacked on a barge that will dock in Seattle on Friday, it’s been a long tragic journey.
A “significant amount” of the hundreds of tons of marine debris collected off the remote coasts of Alaska and Canada was carried into the ocean by the 2011 tsunami that devastated much of the Japanese coastline.
It’s estimated that more than 5 million tons of debris was carried into the Pacific by the earthquake-caused tsunami. NOAA estimates that 70 percent of the debris sank just off the coastline but some 30 percent drifted out to sea.
“Tsunami debris began arriving on U.S. shores in the winter of 2011-2012 and has continued washing ashore in a scattered fashion ever since, mixing in with chronic marine debris,” NOAA reports.
The cleanup effort in Alaska and Canada was primarily funded by the government of Japan.
The Associated Press reported Thursday:
The barge arrived in Kodiak July 15, and made its way down the coastline, stopping to pick up debris loaded by helicopter from rocky beaches. The last stop in Alaska was at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. A stop also was made in British Columbia.
The effort is being funded partly with $900,000 from Alaska’s share of a $5 million gift from the Japanese government for states affected by tsunami debris.
According to a news release by Waste Management:
A two-year, multi-national shoreline cleanup project comes to one of its final stops during its month long round-trip journey on Friday, August 7, 11:00am. The football field sized barge … will arrive and unload the super sacks of marine debris on Waste Management’s Seattle dock.
In a few weeks, local environmental volunteer groups will sort the material for recycling at an event coordinated by Parley for the Oceans, a national non-profit focused on addressing threats to the world’s oceans. Material Innovation company, Bionic Yarn will then transform the sorted marine debris plastic into high-performance textiles and polymers. All remaining debris will travel via train to the Columbia Ridge landfill.
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1Ury1Vb
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire