Debris from the Japanese tsunami is starting to wash ashore on
the U.S. West Coast in a big way. Beachcombers from Northern
California to Alaska are finding fishing floats, soccer balls
and ships that have drifted thousands of miles across the
Pacific Ocean after being dragged to sea by the March 2011
tsunami – even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was traced back
to a tsunami survivor. Authorities this week confirmed the
largest arrival yet: A 66-foot dock that floated onto a beach
near Newport, Ore. Still, marine scientists say a far bigger
problem is the untold amount of everyday garbage swirling in a
vast, slow-moving vortex known as the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch. That’s the popular name for the vast concentration of
debris — most of it confetti-sized flecks of discarded plastic —
circling endlessly about 1,000 miles off the California coast. A
study released last month found a 100-fold increase in plastic
debris in the garbage patch over the past 40 years. “I’m more
concerned about our constant input