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Some of the largest single pieces of floating debris from last year’s Japanese tsunami will be the boats. Fishing boats, most of them, and although some of them will not have survived intact, others will. The first such drifting relic has almost completed its trans-Pacific voyage, and is slowly being driven eastward by the wind and current, just off the coast of Haida Gwaii.
It doesn’t look too shiny, but that’s as you might figure. In fact, it looks surprisingly good for what it’s been through. It seems hard to believe that it will just continue to drift until it smacks into the shore somewhere… someone, somewhere owns it and I’d think whoever it is will make a claim at some point.
It looks strange though, doesn’t it? Like all those sad and terrible tales of ghost ships. It’s a reminder, in its own way, of the tragedy and loss of that day and at the same time, it’s a harbinger of what is yet to come. It’s tempting to think of the tsunami debris as just stuff that’s floating our way, but the truth is that there is a strong karma attached to every piece of it. Everything out there, from children’s toys to fishing boats, belonged to someone and would still be in his or her possession if it had not been violently ripped away. Many of the former owners died that day and others are still missing.
It’s not too out-of-line to view individual items of flotsam as floating memorials to the lives that ended that day.
About Ken Campbell
New Release
A story of sea kayaking and science on the rugged coast of Alaska. Coming – Spring 2014.
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