Miles and miles of piles upon piles of foul-smelling dead and decaying small velella velella jellyfish along the South Beach shoreline haven’t deterred intrepid local beachcombers from their search for sea-borne treasures.
And, during the last couple of weeks, those beachcombing efforts have been handsomely rewarded with an abundance of flotsam (ship or cargo wreckage), jetsam (items intentionally thrown overboard), and tsunami debris, including a number of Japanese glass fishing floats in various sizes.
Much of what has washed ashore lately appears to have come from the March 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan, claiming nearly 16,000 lives. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (NOAA), tsunami debris is expected to continue to show up on our shores intermittently during the next several years.
Persistent Pences
Cohasset Beach residents, Jeff and Marianne Pence, are among the most dedicated beachcombers along the stretch northward from their neighborhood to the South Jetty. Marianne walks the beach daily, with Jeff joining her about half that time.
Their finds lately have included barnacle encrusted sneakers, plastic Japanese fish farm containers, plastic beverage cases, tires, and even a very well traveled soccer ball.
Rare glass float
On Wednesday, April 29, the Pences were rewarded for their eagle-eyed efforts along the shoreline with the discovery of an extremely rare 12” diameter hand blown brown glass Japanese fishing float. The couple spied the prize on the water’s edge just as it was making landfall about a quarter mile south of the South Jetty.
According to float identification expert Alan Rammer, “This is an older Japanese float. I’ll bet from the Hokuyo Glass Co., based on the sealing button. And, I’ll bet it is from an old shed or warehouse that was washed away in the tsunami in 2011.”
Rammer is a retired biologist with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, who now conducts educational ocean shoreline sea life tours and co-authored a book on glass fishing float identification.
Most unusual find
As rare as their new glass float is, another of their recent finds has to be among the strangest they’ve come across to date. On April 20, Jeff discovered a large petrified animal tooth. An inquiry to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, resulted in a determination that it is, “…an ungulate tooth, a tooth from a grass-eating animal like a cow, elk, reindeer, etc. The tooth part is the waving white bit at the one end, the remaining part of the tooth is the root.”
The researcher at the museum didn’t see any modification to the tooth like etching or carving, so, in her opinion, it isn’t an artifact.
Drift Card
That same day, Marianne discovered a small painted plywood Drift Card that included an email address and a request to report the find. Pence did so, and received a reply from one of the managers of a private non-profit field science school (mostly grades 4-11) operating in Olympic National Park called NatureBridge.
Founded as Yosemite Institute in 1971, NatureBridge provides hands-on environmental field science programs for children and teens. The multi-day programs take place outdoors in national parks in Yosemite, Golden Gate, Olympic, Santa Monica Mountains, Channel Islands and Prince William Forest.
School groups come for three or five-day programs to study various topics in science and natural history. Most of the Olympic participants release drift cards if they visit a coastal site during their stay, and most of those are released from the mouth of the Elwha River west of Port Angeles.
The majority are reported from around the Straits, with some making it to the outer Pacific Coast.
For more info on NatureBridge, go to: naturebridge.org
More velella likely
As for the slippery layer of ankle-deep velella velella on the beach? Scientists say to prepare for more of the same. As sea surface temperatures rise following winter, these tiny jellyfish migrate closer to shore to feed on plankton. Since mid-March, surface winds blowing from the west over the northeast Pacific toward coastal Washington have been stronger than average. When the velella are close to the beach, those strong winds prove too much for the little by-the-sea-sailors, pushing them ashore, where they remain high and dry to die. Predictions call for continued strong westerlies that will push many more velella velella onto our shores in coming weeks.