A 24-foot non-motorized boat, possibly from Japan, was removed from the beach near Ponsler Wayside, 13 miles north of Florence Thursday evening. According to Chris Havel with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the vessel was spotted by a beach monitor working with the Oregon Surfrider Foundation Thursday morning.
A retrieval crew from Leisure Excavating in Florence pulled the boat from the surfline by 7 PM Thursday and stored it overnight. It will be taken to the Lane County Waste Transfer site.
Havel says the boat had Japanese characters on it. Two placards with what appeared to be registration information were removed for further research into the probably source and date that the boat was cast adrift.
Several confirmed pieces of debris from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan have been found on the Oregon and Washington Coast since last spring.
A 24 ft non-motorized boat was removed from the beach near Ponsler Wayside, 13 miles north of Florence yesterday. Oregon parks officials say the boat’s origin is uncertain. A placard with Japanese characters on it was removed and sent the Japanese Consulate in an effort to determine where it came from.