October 7, 2016

Report Details

On October 5th, we found a blue plastic pallet that had washed in at high tide.  It had marine life attached.  On October 7th, John Chapman, HMSC, came to check it out to see if it could be Japanese tsunami marine debris (JTMD).  The pallet was made in Japan, and John's initial feeling was it was quite possibly from the 2011 event.  His research is ongoing, but this is his current report:Landed 5 Oct. Sampled 7 Oct 2016A blue pallet landed at the south end of the South Shore Condos on 5 Oct. 2016. 10T 415260 m E; 4938397 m N, 5 Oct. 2016 and was found in the surf line by Cathy Tronquet.  Cathy took the photos on 5 Oct 2016 and moved the pallet up the beach: “So it wouldn't go back out with the tide.” The anemones of 7 Oct 16 photo had fallen off.Notes entered in Notebook #37 page 27: 7 Oct. 2016. Pallet landed on South Beach (10T 415260 m E; 4938397 m N) on 5 Oct. 2016. Cathy reported to Fawn Custer who reported to Chapman. Pallet 1x1 m by 15 cm tall, light blue with slight bleaching that is not apparent in the photos. Collected 4 samples: JTMD 905 – 4 mussels, JTMD 906 – (acorn barnacles [possibly two species], Hiatella and Anomia), JTMD 907 - Metridium preserved immediately in ETOH and JTMD 908 – Metridium are being relaxed (2016-10-10) in a menthol and MgCl solution to prepare them for preservation in “Prefer”.  NO Lepas on the pallet. Numerous byssal attachment sites missing the mussels.The base diameters of the larger acorn barnacles were about 1-1.5 cm. The larger barnacles may include two species. The small barnacles were 2-3 mm in diameter. There were many scars of the little barnacles. One of the mussels is covered with little barnacle scars out to its distal edge. (And thus, the little barnacles were relatively recent.) I found live specimens of all three barnacle types but didn’t find large barnacles or large barnacle scars on the mussels.