Japanese bottle could be tsunami debris

A Texada Island resident believes he found a bottle that is part of tsunami debris from Japan.

Andy Green said he found a plastic water bottle with Japanese writing on the east side of Texada while he was beachcombing. “There’s no English on it whatsoever,” he said.

He found the bottle between Eagle Bay and Stewart Cove, Green added, straight across from the Beach Gardens Resort and Marina.

Usually, Green, who is 21 years old and works for BC Ferries, finds Styrofoam and prawn balls during his beachcombing expeditions. “This is the first Japanese thing we’ve ever found,” he said.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan killed more than 21,000 people, triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and sent tonnes of debris into the ocean. Estimates range from 18 million to 25 million tonnes of debris washed out to sea.

While the majority of the debris is expected to sink or end up caught in the North Pacific garbage patch, 1.5 to three million tonnes could be afloat. Some experts have calculated that much garbage could be as large as California. The bulk of it is expected to hit the Pacific Coast, from California to Alaska, this year and next.