The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that debris the size of Texas from a 2011 Japan tsunami in the Pacific Ocean is not heading for the U.S.
"There is no solid mass of debris from Japan heading to the United States," the NOAA's Marine Debris blog said on Nov. 5.
The NOAA did admit that there is still some debris in the sea, but they aren't sure where the debris is located and how much is left due to the size of the North Pacific.
In September 2012, a plastic bin was discovered and determined to be the first piece of marine debris from the Japan tsunamis to make its way to Hawaii, the NOAA said. Japanese officials said that the blue bin found in the ocean is from Fukushima, said Ben Sherman, a NOAA spokesman in Washington, D.C.
"A significant amount of debris has already arrived on U.S. and Canadian shores," it said, "and it will likely continue arriving in the same scattered way over the next several years. As we get further into the fall and winter storm season, NOAA and partners are expecting to see more debris coming ashore in North America, including tsunami debris mixed in with the "normal" marine debris that we see every year."
The bin was seen near Waimanalo, on the southeast coast of Oahu, by Makai Ocean Engineering staff and was retrieved by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.
"At this point, nearly three years after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, whatever debris remains floating is very spread out," said the NOAA. "It is spread out so much that you could fly a plane over the Pacific Ocean and not see any debris since it is spread over a huge area, and most of the debris is small, hard-to-see objects."
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