Re: "Japan might help tsunami cleanup," Sept. 5.
I was pleased that there is some intergovernmental committee to deal with this situation. But the emphasis in the article was on the cleanup on the shores.
It seems logical to prevent this from happening. The debris - a predicted 1.5 million tonnes - should be removed from the ocean before it reaches the shores. If it does accumulate on the shore it will smother and contaminate with foreign species the fragile intertidal zone habitats on the west coast of Canada and the U.S. The terrain has many uninhabited regions and unapproachable rocky shores that would make it almost physically impossible to remove the debris.
I hope the committee is considering a method of collecting it before it makes landfall. Some of the large ground fishing ships, whale-harvesting ships and the like could be refitted to collect the debris while it is still floating. Even now, it must be altering the water oxygen, temperature and light, and making an immense impact on the populations of fish, protozoans and other microorganisms.
Mary-Lou Florian
Victoria
