1 million tons of tsunami debris floating in Pacific

(dramatic music)

(car door closes)

- [Russ] Usually head out
first thing in the morning.

- [Reporter] It's become an
endless journey for Russ Lewis.

- [Russ] It's a big
piece of plastic I think.

- [Reporter] Cleaning up
this long, wind-swept stretch

of the Long Beach peninsula.

- [Russ] Well, that's a broken tote,

and I would say this is tsunami debris.

This is what's been coming
in lately, just like this.

Bits and pieces and chunks.

- [Reporter] In the years following

the deadly 2011 earthquake
and tsunami that struck Japan,

this beach clean-up volunteer
has hauled away items

by the truckload.

First, there were large
chunks of Styrofoam,

then pieces of wood and tires.

- I counted like 92 pieces.

- [Reporter] Lately,
he's found plastic bins,

bowls and cookware washing
up one piece at a time.

- [Russ] When it first started
out, it was like a big mass

of debris and then it
started separating out

and then the high-floating
lightweight objects

got out ahead of this
lower floating stuff,

so it's been kind of a progression.

- [Reporter] The first tsunami
debris started washing ashore

in the fall of 2011.

Since then, Oregon tsunami debris hotline

has received roughly
17 hundred phone calls

(dial tone)

with the highest concentration reported

along the central Oregon coast.

Many of the items are
small, no names or markings,

but there have been larger items,

including a dock and
several fishing boats.

In 2013, KGW traveled to the
tsuanmi-affected area in Japan

to return several of those lost items,

including a piece of
Katsuo Sito's fishing boat.

(people sigh)

These are pieces from your boat?

- [Katsuo] Yes, yes.

We will put it into the shrine.

- [Reporter] Scientists
predict there's more than

1,000,000 tons of tsunami
debris still floating

in the Pacific Ocean.

- [Sam] The units were initially sent out

about three months after
the Japanese tsunami.

- [Reporter] To track this
debris, researchers in Japan

released transponders into the ocean.

Scientists at Oregon State University

are helping collect the units
and analyze their movements.

- [Sam] They are GSP transponders.

- [Reporter] The transponders
suggest tsunami debris

hugged the coastline
of Japan before moving

across the Pacific Ocean.

It's likely now circulating
just off the U.S. west coast.

- [Sam] So that debris is
probably still out there,

and it won't probably be until
we actually have a series

of major storms when we actually start

seeing some of that again.

(wind blows)

- [Reporter] Scientists
theorize we will continue

to see debris wash ashore

for the next three years or longer.

It's a subtle reminder of this tragedy

and the devastating effect
of earthquakes and tsunamis.