Pilot: Large amounts of tsunami debris coming ashore — “Holy crap, all of a sudden you see all this stuff” (VIDEO)

Pilot: Large amounts of tsunami debris coming ashore — “Holy crap, all of a sudden you see all this stuff” (VIDEO)

Published: January 31st, 2013 at 11:50 pm ET By ENENews  Email Article 4 comments

Title: Tsunami debris litters B.C. beaches
Source: The Globe and Mail
Author: MARK HUME
Date: Jan. 28 2013

Debris from the tsunami that struck Japan two years ago is building up on West Coast beaches, with everything from soccer balls to floating docks drifting ashore from Alaska to California.
Peter Barratt, operations manager for West Coast Helicopters, has been looking down on British Columbia’s rugged Pacific coastline for much of the past 30 years – and he has never seen as much garbage as he did on a recent reconnaissance flight along northwest Vancouver Island with Will Soltau, of the Living Oceans Society.
In a flight that took them along the remote outer coast, the two men said they saw garbage scattered on almost every beach for more than 100 kilometres. Mr. Barratt, a pilot with decades of experience on the coast, said it is clear large amounts of debris from the tsunami, which hit Japan in March, 2011, are coming ashore. [...]
“Of course there’s always debris on the beaches,” he added. “But I dropped down … and, holy crap, all of a sudden you see all this stuff. [...]
“I expect the worst isn’t over yet,” [Soltau] he said. [...]
An estimated 1.5 million tonnes of debris is eventually expected to hit the West Coast. [...]