Workers remove a plastic bumper to eliminate potential refuge
for invasive species on a dock that washed ashore on a beach
near Forks, Wash. / AP FORKS, WASH. — A Washington state
spokesman says a crew has scrubbed a dock that washed ashore on
a wilderness beach near Forks, Wash., and scraped off more than
400 pounds of organic material, including species native to
Japan but not found in the United States. The dock is considered
likely debris from the March 2011 tsunami in Japan. Ecology
Department spokesman Curt Hart said a six-member team from
Olympic National Park and the state Department of Fish and
Wildlife removed protective bumpers and decontaminated the outer
dock surface with a diluted bleach solution on Friday. The team
put the organic material in an upland area outside the surf zone
where the marine species won’t survive. Hart says initial lab
results identified as many as 50 plant and animal species on the
dock that are native to Japan, including algae, seaweed, mussels
and barnacles. State and fe