My thoughts on the Japanese Tsunami Debris

I've been reading and talking with people quite a bit lately about debris on our beaches that seems to have come from Japan. Most recently and most worryingly HERE on Live To Surf's Blog.  Whether or not these particular items are from the March 2011 tsunami in Japan isn't really important, we know that many tons of debris are heading this way.  In a fairly unprecedented situation we don't know exactly how much will wash up on our shoreline and what it will take to deal with it.

So what are we going to do about it?

I know Surfrider will be busy, both locally and all over the Pacific Coast and there are a ton of volunteers and good, beach loving folks that will be doing a great deal to keep beaches and coastlines intact.

What if these people are overwhelmed? What if, as some have predicted, we are inundated with rusted automobiles, capsized fishing boats, buildings and other large items that you can't simply pick  up and put in a bin.

Could the fallout of beaches littered with Toyotas or just tons of dimensional lumber mean damage to the tourism industry? Could objects in the water inferfere with aquaculture installations or other businesses? In a worst case scenario I think it could, so how can we prepare?

Maybe the answer is in the questions above.  What if we could attract visitors to the coast in order to clean up the beaches. Could people be convinced to spend some of their vacation time cleaning up the beach or raising funds for some of the cleanup efforts that will require professionals or heavy equipment? 

I think that enough people love the Long Beach Peninsula, Barkley and Clayoquot, and might be willing, more might agree if there were additional incentives. Perhaps a "third night free" or a book of coupons from local businesses could be given to those who donate a certain portion of time to local beach cleanup efforts. Week long surf (or kayak, etc) camps with a beach cleanup component could be organized with discounted rates and the community component attracting youth organizations.

It may be a sort of utopian or even selfish vision I have. Wage slaves from around the world spending their hard-earned money and valuable vacation time to clean up beaches in a relatively wealthy corner of the world.  Especially given that those beaches are being sullied by debris from a disaster that is still very real in Japan where aid could perhaps be of more use.  If my "solution" is any solution at all it won't likely offer much help to the more remote coast line either, it will only be a cosmetic fix in the convenient "vacation destination" portion of our region. I'm not the smartest guy around, I just have a loud voice so please let me know if you have ideas.

Maybe it's my own laziness that has me thinking "how can I get someone else to do it".

Hopefully, it won't be a serious problem and the quantity of Japanese flotsum will be managable with existing resources. I just thought it would be a good thing to get some dialog going about it and see what we come up with.

Thanks for reading, please comment if you have some ideas or insight, Geoff.

On another note, here's the audio from this morning's interview and live performance with Bonny Glambeck and Kalilah