First tsunami debris may have arrived

State and federal officials are investigating the origin of a large blue container that may be debris from the March 2011 tsunami that struck Japan.

Officials have asked the Japanese Consulate General to Hawaii to assist in the inquiry.

The container was labeled with the name of a Japanese business that had factories damaged by the tsunami.

The plastic vessel, a 4-foot cube with an open top, had some passengers — gooseneck barnacles, crabs and five local seabirds — three dead and two that flew away, observers said.

A scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the marine life found on the container are not considered alien species and are Pacific-wide rafting species commonly found on flotsam.

Officials have not confirmed that the plastic container is tsunami debris but the timing of its arrival is in line with projections made by researchers Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner, both with the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii.

"It fits very well," Maximenko said in a telephone interview.

Maximenko said the flow of debris to Hawaii may peak next spring or summer, and racing yachts out of San Francisco and Los Angeles have seen many objects floating off California.

"According to our model, all these objects are floating to Hawaii," Maximenko said. "It’s hard to estimate the amount. … But something is coming."

The container was found Tuesday about 150 yards offshore by an observer who regularly scans the ocean horizon for monk seals, said Michael Nedbal, the operations coordinator for Makai Ocean Engineering, based near Sea Life Park.

The state said in a release that the bin is used to transport live and frozen seafood.

Terry Kerby, a researcher with the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, said the container was floating high in the water, allowing the wind to drive it faster than the ocean currents.

Kerby said the container was pulled in by a kayaker and lifted by a crane onto a pallet, with minimal disturbance to the sea life attached to it.

State officials, fearing invasive species from Japan might find their way to the islands, sent a so-called rapid response team to take the container to the state Anuenue Fisheries Research Center at Sand Island, where it was placed under quarantine.

After an examination, state aquatic workers scraped off any remaining organisms and decontaminated the bin, said Deborah Ward, spokeswoman for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Kerby said the birds that died probably fell into the container and couldn’t fly out of it.

He said the barnacles acted as ballast so the container did not tip over.

The container had the label of Y.K. Suisan Co. Ltd., a business with factories that were destroyed by the tsunami, Nedbal said.

Y.K. Suisan processes fish and meat products in Miyagi prefecture in northeastern Japan, according to a web profile. That area was devastated by the tsunami after a 9.0 quake offshore on March 11, 2011.

A similar container from the same company washed up off the coast of Vancouver Island, near Port Renfrew, Canada, in June. That bin had the same species of gooseneck barnacles attached to it as a Japanese dock that washed up on the Oregon coast in June, according to the Vancouver Sun.