Japan Tsunami Marine debris is highly dispersed at this time. It is difficult to assess the real danger to mariners, even where the material is coming ashore, as reported in No. Washington a day or so ago. I have been offshore several times in the past few weeks along the OR/WA/CA coast and have seen NOTHING. http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html#3 Quote from web url above: "NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) tracked the debris. Soon after the tsunami, fields of debris were visible from satellites. Over time the debris dispersed, and as of April 14, 2011 NESDIS could no longer detect debris in satellite imagery." My comments. It is now almost 9 months since April. The debris is even more widely dispersed. In the early 1950's I can remember seeing log piles on the Oregon coast beaches that were up to 20 feet high, the majority no more than 5-10 feet. The entire beach would be covered from one end to the other. These logs came from log rafting on coastal rivers, not from far across the Pacific. Such logs tended to drift down and out to sea and were blown back onto the beaches during storms. Debris from Japan that is heavy and not exposed to the wind may never come ashore on the West Coast of the American land mass. But the islands of the Pacific may not fare so well. If this is so, then coastal cruising may not be impacted much. But Pacific Ocean crossing may be far more hazardous than has been in many centuries. Mike Maurice