Recent Oregon Coast Discoveries Include Tsunami Debris, Animals, Bad Golfers

Published 03/24/2013

(Oregon Coast) – The Oregon coast has seen a lot of objects washing up onshore recently – some of it the usual stuff and some downright unusual, including a golfer who was blatantly littering the ocean.

Keith Chandler, manager of the Seaside Aquarium, pointed out the winds have been blowing in the from the west, so this will cause many things, both animal and otherwise, to show up on the beaches. When those west winds stop, so will the heavy inundation. (Photo above: a piece of a Japanese temple found in Oceanside, courtesy Judson Randall)

Salp find, photo courtesy Seaside Aquarium

In the meantime, however, it could mean plenty of oddities to disturbing surprises, along with tsunami debris, creatures both living and deceased, and maybe a few treasures here and there.

This piece, apparently a part of a Japanese temple, was found by Oceanside's Judson Randall (photo by Randall)

Early last week, some wooden beams with obvious attachable ends were found in Pacific City and Tierra Del Mar. While it's unclear if they were really from Japan, they did look as if they could be part of a Japanese temple gate found Friday in Oceanside, about 25 miles north. That gate piece is one of the more poignant finds of the objects found so far that are likely tsunami debris. More on that story.

Also found on Friday: a small boat with Japanese writing in Cannon Beach, and another vessel with Asian lettering in Long Beach, Washington. More on that story.

A comb jelly - photo Seaside Aquarium

A form of jellyfish called a salp created quite a stir along the Oregon coast in the last month. These clear, globular creatures littered many of the beaches, along with tinier jellyfish called comb jellies, which look like space aliens in their natural ocean habitat. See the Tiny Aliens Invade Oregon Coast article for more.

Last week, a deceased harbor porpoise was found as well, and that was picked up by members of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network for a necropsy and for safety reasons. More on the harbor porpoise article.

An organization called CoastWatch has volunteers who patrol beaches and look for any major changes or problems. Members made some interesting finds in mid-March.

Down on Gregory Point, at Lighthouse Beach in Coos County, a volunteer found a fair amount of styrofoam, shells and kelp and algae last week – typical of this time of year.

At a beach around Bandon, a CoastWatch volunteer discovered a golfer purposefully hitting balls into the ocean. This was the second time in two weeks the volunteer said he'd seen this.

A CoastWatch volunteer found some erosion happening at Beverly Beach near Newport, including some of the bluff wearing away. More ominous, however, was the discovery of some shellfish last week that appeared to be non-native on a piece of wood that had washed up. Whether or not those were a real threat has not been determined by officials, however, and this is only a guess made by the finder at this time.

Scroll down to see more articles about Oregon coast tsunami debris, including constantly updated news.

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