PICES SPECIAL PUBLICATION 6 The Effects of Marine Debris Caused by the Great Japan Tsunami of 2011 Editors: Cathryn Clarke Murray, Thomas W. Therriault, Hideaki Maki, and Nancy Wallace Authors: Stephen Ambagis, Rebecca Barnard, Alexander Bychkov, Deborah A. Carlton, James T. Carlton, Miguel Castrence, Andrew Chang, John W. Chapman, Anne Chung, Kristine Davidson, Ruth DiMaria, Jonathan B. Geller, Reva Gillman, Jan Hafner, Gayle I. Hansen, Takeaki Hanyuda, Stacey Havard, Hirofumi Hinata, Vanessa Hodes, Atsuhiko Isobe, Shin’ichiro Kako, Masafumi Kamachi, Tomoya Kataoka, Hisatsugu Kato, Hiroshi Kawai, Erica Keppel, Kristen Larson, Lauran Liggan, Sandra Lindstrom, Sherry Lippiatt, Katrina Lohan, Amy MacFadyen, Hideaki Maki, Michelle Marraffini, Nikolai Maximenko, Megan I. McCuller, Amber Meadows, Jessica A. Miller, Kirsten Moy, Cathryn Clarke Murray, Brian Neilson, Jocelyn C. Nelson, Katherine Newcomer, Michio Otani, Gregory M. Ruiz, Danielle Scriven, Brian P. Steves, Thomas W. Therriault, Brianna Tracy, Nancy C. Treneman, Nancy Wallace, and Taichi Yonezawa. Technical Editor: Rosalie Rutka Please cite this publication as: The views expressed in this volume are those of the participating scientists. Contributions were edited for Clarke Murray, C., Therriault, T.W., Maki, H., and Wallace, N. brevity, relevance, language, and style and any errors that [Eds.] 2019. The Effects of Marine Debris Caused by the were introduced were done so inadvertently. Great Japan Tsunami of 2011, PICES Special Publication 6, 278 pp. Published by: Project Designer: North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) Lori Waters, Waters Biomedical Communications c/o Institute of Ocean Sciences Victoria, BC, Canada P.O. Box 6000, Sidney, BC, Canada V8L 4B2 Feedback: www.pices.int Comments on this volume are welcome and can be sent This publication is based on a report submitted to the via email to: [email protected] Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, in June 2017. ISSN : 1813-8519 ISBN: 978-1-927797-33-4 Front cover images: (Top): Computed tsunami arrival times, March 11, 2011 (Honshu, Japan). Credit: National Tsunami Warning Center, NOAA/NWS. (Bottom): Aerial view of tsunami debris, northern Japan, taken March 13, 2011. Credit: U.S. Navy. Table of Contents Executive Summary v Chapter 10: Genetics of marine algae arriving on Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris and their invasion Chapter 1: Introduction 1 threat to the Pacific coast of North America 143 Contributing authors: Cathryn Clarke Murray, Thomas W. Therriault, Contributing authors: Hiroshi Kawai, Takeaki Hanyuda, Hideaki Maki, and Nancy Wallace and Gayle I. Hansen THEME I – Movement of Debris THEME IV – Characteristics of Japanese Tsunami Marine Chapter 2: Modeling oceanographic drift of Japanese Debris Species Tsunami Marine Debris 7 Chapter 11: Survival and fitness of Japanese Tsunami Contributing authors: Nikolai Maximenko, Amy MacFadyen, Marine Debris rafting species 169 Masafumi Kamachi, and Jan Hafner Contributing authors: Jessica A. Miller, James T. Carlton, John W. Chapman, Jonathan B. Geller, and Gregory M. Ruiz THEME II – Arrival of Debris Chapter 12: Distributional, environmental, and life history Chapter 3: Shoreline monitoring of debris arrival attributes of Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris biota 179 in North America and Hawaii 25 Contributing authors: Jessica A. Miller, Reva Gillman, Contributing authors: Cathryn Clarke Murray, Nikolai Maximenko, James T. Carlton, Cathryn Clarke Murray, Jocelyn C. Nelson, and Sherry Lippiatt Michio Otani, and Gregory M. Ruiz Chapter 4: Webcam monitoring of marine and tsunami debris arrival in North America 39 THEME V – Detection of Invasion Contributing authors: Atsuhiko Isobe, Hirofumi Hinata, Shin’ichiro Kako, and Tomoya Kataoka Chapter 13: Detection of invertebrates from Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris in North American waters 197 Chapter 5: Surveillance of debris in British Columbia, Contributing authors: Gregory M. Ruiz, Rebecca Barnard, Canada 47 Andrew Chang, Ruth DiMaria, Stacey Havard, Erica Keppel, Contributing authors: Tomoya Kataoka, Cathryn Clarke Murray, Kristen Larson, Katrina Lohan, Michelle Marraffini, and Atsuhiko Isobe Katherine Newcomer, Brian P. Steves, Brianna Tracy, Chapter 6: Surveillance of debris in the main Hawaiian Thomas W. Therriault, and Vanessa Hodes Islands 59 Chapter 14: Detection of algae from Japanese Tsunami Contributing authors: Kirsten Moy, Brian Neilson, Anne Chung, Marine Debris in North American waters 205 Amber Meadows, Miguel Castrence, Stephen Ambagis, Contributing authors: Hiroshi Kawai, Gayle I. Hansen, and Kristine Davidson and Sandra Lindstrom THEME III – Rafting of Japanese Species THEME VI – Risk of Invasion Chapter 7: Characterization of the invertebrate, protist, and Chapter 15: The invasion risk of species associated with fish biodiversity arriving with Japanese Tsunami Marine Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris in Pacific North Debris in North America and the Hawaiian Islands 69 America and Hawaii 215 Contributing authors: James T. Carlton, John W. Chapman, Contributing authors: Thomas W. Therriault, Jocelyn C. Nelson, Jonathan B. Geller, Jessica A. Miller, Deborah A. Carlton, James T. Carlton, Lauran Liggan, Michio Otani, Hiroshi Kawai, Megan I. McCuller, Nancy C. Treneman, Brian P. Steves, Danielle Scriven, Gregory M. Ruiz, and Cathryn Clarke Murray and Gregory M. Ruiz Chapter 16: An evaluation of Japanese Tsunami Marine Chapter 8: The genetics of invertebrate species associated Debris as a potential vector of invasive species 243 with Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris 101 Contributing authors: Cathryn Clarke Murray, James T. Carlton, Contributing authors: Jonathan B. Geller, Hisatsugu Kato, Jocelyn C. Nelson, Gregory M. Ruiz, and Thomas W. Therriault Michio Otani, and Taichi Yonezawa Chapter 9: Marine algae arriving on Japanese Tsunami Chapter 17: Project summary and legacy products 263 Marine Debris in Oregon and Washington: The species, Contributing authors: Cathryn Clarke Murray, Thomas W. Therriault, their characteristics and invasion potential 125 Hideaki Maki, Nancy Wallace, and Alexander Bychkov Contributing authors: Gayle I. Hansen, Takeaki Hanyuda, Chapter 18: Project Science Team and and Hiroshi Kawai Research Team members 269 National Tsunami Warning Center, NOAA/NWS Executive Summary The Great East Japan Earthquake, with magnitude 9.1, from different areas and timelines of its arrival on the struck off the Tohoku coast on March 11, 2011, and North American and Hawaiian coasts, exhibiting strong triggered a massive tsunami that surged inland across seasonal and interannual variations. New modeling kilometers of shoreline. This event was a natural disaster techniques were also developed to derive probable of staggering proportions, causing loss of human life, drift trajectories of individual JTMD items to highlight property destruction, and environmental damage. The areas where debris was likely to accumulate, and to tsunami washed millions of tons of material into the evaluate the oceanographic conditions (temperature, Pacific Ocean and, within a year, this debris (termed salinity, etc.) along the JTMD pathways where Japanese Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris or JTMD), carrying coastal species could potentially survive transit, thereby living coastal Japanese species, began arriving on the facilitating NIS risk assessments. shores of the Pacific coast of North America and the Hawaiian Islands (hereafter Hawaii). The overall goal of a Analysis of the temporal and spatial variability in JTMD 3-year (2014–2017) PICES project, funded by the Ministry landfall in North America and Hawaii by the surveillance of the Environment (MoE) of Japan, was to assess and and monitoring group demonstrated a sharp and forecast the potential effects of JTMD, especially those significant increase in debris influx beginning in May related to non-indigenous species (NIS), on ecosystem 2012; the detection of indicator items, such as beverage structure and function, the coastlines, and communities containers and other consumer objects, suggested a along the Pacific coast of North America and Hawaii, 10-fold increase in beached debris over pre-tsunami and to suggest research and management actions to levels. It was also found that debris influx differed by mitigate any impacts. coastline, with higher-windage debris being transported to higher latitudes. Recognizing the existence of vast, The JTMD study provided the first opportunity in the uninhabited areas where JTMD could have made history of marine science to track a multi-year large- landfall, systematic aerial photographic surveys were scale (7000+ km) transoceanic rafting event of marine conducted to search for, and quantify, JTMD arriving on life originating from an exact known source and with the coastlines of British Columbia (BC) and Hawaii. The an exact known sea-entry time. The project, referred surveys were the first comprehensive debris evaluations to as ADRIFT (Assessing the Debris-Related Impact in these two regions, providing an important baseline From the Tsunami), brought together researchers from of marine debris and complementing previous similar multiple scientific disciplines, and this international team efforts in Alaska. In February 2015, a webcam system focused on three major themes: (1) modeling movement was installed at a site in Oregon to track beach-specific of marine debris in the North Pacific to forecast and debris landings and removals to better understand the hindcast JTMD trajectories and landings, (2) surveillance temporal