Toxic Island

Earlier this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a photo showing a piece of a "massive, Texas-sized 'island' of toxic debris" making its way from Japan to the United States, causing a major response from the American west coast.



After the outburst, the NOAA has clarified that while there were once approximately 5 million tons of floating debris, 70 percent of it has since sunk. The NOAA released a statement, saying, "At this point, nearly three years after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, whatever debris remains floating is very spread out. It is spread out so much that you could fly a plane over the Pacific Ocean and not see any debris since it is spread over a huge area, and most of the debris is small, hard-to-see objects."

With that said, however, many believe that there will be debris - toxic and non toxic or 'normal' - coming in through to Canadian and U.S. shores within the next few years. According to John Chapman, a scientist at Oregon State University Marine Science Center, "We’re finding that all kinds of Japanese organisms are growing on the debris. We've found over 165 non-native species so far.... we’d never seen [some of these species] here, and we don’t particularly want [them] here.

"While there likely is some debris still floating at sea, the North Pacific is an enormous area, and it's hard to tell exactly where the debris is or how much is left. A significant amount of debris has already arrived on the U.S. and Canadian shores, and it will likely to continue arriving in the same scattered way over the next several years," the agency said."

Even though there isn't the so called "toxic island" floating our way, there's no sure way to know what could be attached to the normal debris that is landing on our shores. 

Bennet-Smith, M. (2013, November 07).  Everyone Calm Down: A Texas-Sized 'Island  of Toxic Tsumani Debris Is Not Headed For The U.S.  Retrieved from 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/japanese-tusnami-debris-island-    us_n_4226562.html

Tanquintic-Misa, Esther. (2013, November 07). NOAA Douses Fears of Fukushima Tsunami Debris Heading to the United States. Retrieved from http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/520178/20131107/noaa-fukushima-tsunami-debris.htm#.UnxO2Pmkozy.