The tsunami that ravaged northeast Japan in March 2011 created the biggest single dumping of rubbish, sweeping some five million tonnes of shattered buildings, cars, household goods and other rubble into the sea. According to Japanese estimates about three-and-a-half million tonnes, sank immediately, leaving some 1.5 million tonnes of plastic, timber, fishing nets, shipping containers, industrial scrap and innumerable other objects to float deeper into the ocean.
NYK has drawn upon the lessons learned from the tremendous tsunami damage sustained by vessels after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March of last year to create tsunami-response guidelines for ships in port. The guidelines, the first to be developed for Japan, were presented on May 23 at a meeting hosted by the Japan Institute of Navigation.
M.V. Asia Symphony lies on a pier after being hit by tsunami at the port in Kamaishi city
According to Canadian officials, a 65-meter Japanese fishing boat that was lost more than a year ago in the tsunami, off the east coast of Japan, has been spotted 278 kilometers off the southern coast of Haida Gwaii islands, approximately 1,500 kilometers north of Vancouver. The “ghost ship” was spotted by a Canadian military air patrol, and it is believed that it has been adrift since March of the last year.
“It looks fairly sound and has rust streak from being out there for a year,” said Marc Proulx, the maritime coordinator of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Victoria, British Columbia.
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Officer of the Watch 