Megarafting animals rode from Japan to US and Canada after the 2011 tsunami

Animals are known to travel the world
on makeshift rafts -- synthetic or natural.
This is not a frequent thing--
most coasts have pretty different animals and plants
from one to the next.
But the 2011 Japanese tsunami
caused a megarafting event and scientists were able to
track objects that travelled as far as 7,000km
As the water left Japan’s eastern shore
it brought with it a panoply of debris--
millions of objects ranging in size
from tiny plastic fragments to whole fishing boats.
Under the water, the debris field
became home to diverse marine life.
As ocean currents swept these objects away,
they took their inhabitants with them.
Many making their way all the way to the Eastern Pacific.
With all these animals and detritus on the move,
the Japanese tsunami provided a unique
opportunity to track and evaluate
the fate of a biologically-rich debris field.
Debris with living Japanese marine species
began landing on the shores of the Eastern Pacific
in 2012, as far north as southwest Alaska
and as far east as central California.
Researchers have documented animals
on 635 debris objects, including docks, buoys,
pieces of wood, and even fishing vessels.
They found at least 279 living Japanese invertebrate
and fish species, none of which have been
reported to have rafted between continents before.
Many debris objects were categorized as
‘high richness arrivals’ meaning that they carried
more than 20 species.
This richness may be attributed to the large amount of
non-biodegradable material available for rafting.
Organic rafting materials such as trees and
root masses have far shorter lives at sea,
when compared to synthetic materials
such as fiberglass or polystyrene.
Longer at-sea times means
barnacles, limpets, and mussels
can establish colonies that can span
multiple generations.
Now we know from this study of the mega rafting
engendered by the Japanese tsunami,
just how far they will go
As the world’s population grows,
the amount of waste entering the ocean will rise.
And that means in the future,
our coasts could become a lot less diverse
as more animals hitch a ride.
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Megarafting animals rode from Japan to US and Canada after the 2011 tsunami

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