Trash from tsunami brings invasive species, stretches budgets

New York Times : The March 2011 tsunami in northeastern Japan pulled an estimated 5 million tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean. A third of that trash, amounting to about 1.5 million tons, is still afloat and heading to the US’s Pacific coastline, with significant amounts already washing ashore. The cleanup costs are straining state budgets: Oregon, which has a two-year shoreline cleanup budget of $85â000, has already spent more than $250â000 since May 2012, most notably to remove a 188-ton, 20-meter-long dock, which washed ashore. That dock was covered in nonnative marine life, including wakame, an edible seaweed considered to be one the 100 worst invasive species. Because of the threat of invasive speciesâmdash;estimated to cause $138 billion of damage in the US each yearâmdash;and the need to maintain the cleanliness of Pacific beaches, state and federal agencies are pressing for additional funding to clean up the tsunami debris, which is expected to continue to wash ashore through 2016.