The Martlet

Imagine you’ve taken a weekend surf trip up to Tofino, are lounging between sets, leaning on your arms, hands in the sand on Long Beach, when, on the horizon you spot waves bringing in . . . lumber . . . an upturned boat . . . a mass of waste two times the size of Texas?

This is the estimated size of the debris of 2011’s Japanese tsunami.

Now rest assured, this hasn’t happened yet, and truthfully, it won’t. Rather, the debris from last year’s catastrophe is and will be washing upon North American shores from Oregon to Vancouver Island well into 2014 (and you may have graduated from this utopic island campus and moved on by then), so why worry?

The debris really isn’t much of an issue if we’re talking plastic bottles, cleaning supplies, that kind of thing. But amongst the wreckage are more sizeable chunks of flotsam, fishing vessels included.

Childhood experience isn’t valuable here; you can’t just toss your neighbour’s football back over the fence if the ball is actually a boat, and if your fence isn’t a fence, but rather, the Pacific Ocean, and if your neighbour is . . . well.

Tofino’s Mayor Perry Schmunk has made the right move, choosing not to make light of the situation, promising to, “Treat the whole thing with respect because everything that has come ashore has dealt with a significant human tragedy.” British Columbia has even created a Provincial Tsunami Working Group to deal with the debris. But put aside how such a group will deal with shorelines that could be spontaneously awash with wreckage reminiscent of Hollywood disaster sets, the question remains: how to discern the origin of what floats ashore? Pictures of household consumables with seemingly Japanese labels have begun to circulate on the Internet, however online commentators and Tofino locals alike have been quick to point out that the labels of these products are not all written in Japanese, but in several instances, Mandarin.

The Cliff’s Notes: what’s washing ashore so far is not yet the stuff of last year’s disaster. Fishing boats, cargo vessels, and other ships are notorious for dropping waste into the ocean, and what’s been found ashore in the last handful of months indicates nothing different. Somewhere out there in that great salty bowl may very well be a new whirling giant island of garbage similar to the one described by Yann Martel in Life of Pi. But it’s yet to spew out its contents all over our wonderful Orca and sea lion shores. Until then: let’s drum up how to deal with the scenario; consider the twisted opportunity that comes out of the catastrophe—new jobs; provide a dignified memorial for that which cannot be returned; and not freak out.