Dear CSC staff; my name is David. I am a treacher , NGO organizer and film maker liviing in Japan for over 20yrs. near Kazusa Ichinnomiya, one of most popular surf areas here. I with my team have been collecting information about the debris coming your way, and wish to share with you, our current information. Added here is the list to date, we update this list as we get more infomation. Please be advised that the numbers used here are only 'guestimates' as no one really knows just how much is 'out there'. Here below is the list - photos can be seen on our web site under the tab- EDES - thank you and take care - David
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Floating mass contents
known(K) and probabilities (P)

( Known-confirmed by a reliable sources )

Numbers of houses in part or fully destroyed information came from the police records or and from the individual kens(provinces) 0 - to -X number indicates that there maybe from 0 to X number floating in the Pacific.

The word 'maybe' is important here , as no one knows what is or is not at this time.

update -Midway - from our contacts on Midway, both Canadian and American, there has been no sighting of any debris from the tsunami to date ( March 18th 2012)

There have been many reports of 20 million tons, of debris in both masses (total) ,not sure where this figure came from,maybe the 'American 7th Fleet' who saw the 'northern mass' but if feel its not reliable. The Japanese government stated, last week that maybe 1.5 million tons is out there, but they are not counting the trees, which are the biggest danger and the heaviest material. My estimate is 3 million tons - with the trees included.



Readers can obtain information as to where we obtained this information by writing to me - David Simpson at -canada_water@yahoo.ca . Donations are welcome -please see 'donations' tab for banking information. Thank you.

Last update - March 18th 2012

Number of houses destroyed -

128, 234

Number of houses 'partially' destroyed-

242, 324

Affected provinces:

1- Miyagi ken = 4, 522,000 tons of wood reported found,collected. We do not know at this time if this includes trees or just house wood.

2- Fukushima ken - TBA

3- Iwate ken - TBA

4- Ibaraki ken - TBA

* communities are not releasing information . Why, we do not know but so far only two have.

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1) Boats large and small missing (k)

2) toys, plastics house items - in the thousands (K)

3) Trees from -'Rikuzen-takata Matsubayashi' town = 69,999 - about 30 meters high each( K) and possibly 400,000 more from other affected towns. Trees are from 15 to 400 yrs old, about 30 lbs. per yard in weight or about 900 lbs per tree.

4) car parts - (P)

5) House hold items of plastic in nature such as - shampoo plastic bottles - 3 per house average x 3 ken / - 0 to 397,558 bottles

6) fridges 150,000 houses = 0 - to 125,000 (many seen floating with the motor inside ) (K)

House furniture - probably 128,234 plus 242,324 in part = 397,558 of various furniture pieces (P)

7) Electrical cable wiring (P)

8) Car parts and tires (P)

9) buoys - 0 to many hundreds

10) Parts of 125,000 destroyed houses (K) in particular the roofs of which many are made of light metal.

corrugated iron roofs attached by nails to wood or in pieces

average house is very small compared to NA houses,average 20 tons of wood total per house.Metal sheeting sizes- 50cm x 1080 cm and 60 cm x 600 cm . Total - 0 to about 125,000 roofs

11) Pharmaceuticals in plastic- unknown at this time(P) We have written to all the major companies here in Japan, with no reply to date.

12) Thousands of fishing nets and floatation gear (P)

13) Possibly some human remains

14) Oil tanks large and small (P)

15) propane tanks (P)

16) Plywood pieces large and small with 1 inch to 2 inch nails-thousands of pieces from house siding.

17) Post and beam- wood- no nails(hundreds of thousands of pieces (k)

18) 2 x 4 inch pieces of wood with nails - a minority of the house pieces - (k)

19) Styrofoam- as insulation from houses or keeping fish cold thousands of pieces a minority of houses had insulation ,most houses do not have. (k)

20) plastic fishing boxes-from 9000 or more. Can float and can be re used(k).

21) TV sets seen floating with the interior parts. 0 to 1.100,000

to be continued

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FAQ on the floating debris

There are two ‘floating debris masses ‘ that come directly from the actions of the tsunami. We state these as ‘northeastern floating debris mass’ and ‘ southeastern floating debris mass ‘

The 'north easterly debris mass' is heading towards Canada in a ‘north easterly direction. It will eventual divide in two,near Vancouver Island going