NOAA Investigates Origin of Recent Ocean Debris
Bits and Pieces of People's Lives Bits and pieces of people's lives, that is what one reporter said; we are not to think of the Japan tsunami debris as litter when it begins to wash up on our shores in 2013, but rather as bits and pieces of people's lives. But is it already washing up on our shores?2011 ended with a wave of sensationalized headlines from British Columbia, Alaska and Washington, reporting sightings of debris from the Japan tsunami already reaching shore on the West Coast; setting off a contentious debate between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and a few independent oceanographers and flotsam trackers. Waiting for word on the other side of the Pacific, are the people of Japan whose missing families and friends are symbolically represented in the bits and pieces of debris.While painting a picture of 20 million tons of plastic and paper and metal and wood stretching a thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean, some news stories are also raising fear of radiation as a result of the Fukushima meltdown, and others even speak of the possibility of macabre scenes of body parts washing up on our beaches as severed feet in tennis ...
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