Tsunami-debris team reaches dock on Washington beach

Associated Press

FORKS, Wash.

Hiking over primitive coastal trails, a team reached a dock that apparently floated from Japan after last year’s tsunami and just washed ashore on a Washington beach, and an official said the group found Japanese writing inside the structure.

The team of tsunami debris experts is trying to confirm that the dock is from Japan and drifted for more than a year before winding up on one of the most remote beaches on the U.S. West Coast.

The team did not find an identifying plaque like the one found on a dock that washed ashore last June at Newport, Ore., said Kim Schmanke, a spokeswoman for the state Ecology Department. That dock was confirmed as debris from the March 2011 Japanese tsunami.

The writing and fresh photos are being shared with the Japanese consulate in an effort to confirm this dock as tsunami debris, the spokeswoman said.

The debris team took live samples of potentially invasive species for lab analysis, inspected five dock surfaces and attached a tracking beacon. The crew also took samples to check for any radioactivity, although state Health Department experts consider that highly unlikely, Schmanke said.

The dock was spotted Tuesday by the Coast Guard on Washington’s rugged Olympic Peninsula.