Nearly 300 species have appeared on the shores of Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast attached to tsunami debris, marine biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Williams College and other institutions reported in the journal Science on Thursday. But new research published today in Science has found that hundreds of marine species travelled from Japan to North America in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (which struck the east coast of Japan with devastating consequences). When a magnitude 9 earthquake shook the western Pacific Ocean floor and sent a tsunami crashing into Japan in 2011, millions of pieces of debris — from docks and fishing boats to plastic pollution — were swept out to sea. Now, a new study finds that nearly 300 species hitchhiked aboard that debris across the Pacific and were scattered along the west coast of North America. Credit: Oregon State University

"There is huge potential for the amount of marine debris in the oceans to increase significantly," said lead author James Carlton, an invasive species expert with the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Choong is researching how they hitched a ride to the west coast on debris swept into the ocean as a result of the 2011 Japan tsunami.
Aquatic species from Japan hitched a ride on debris from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and were able to reach the West Coast of the United States alive.