Beach-cast debris surveys on Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada indicate the timing of arrival of 2011 Tohoku tsunami debris in North America.

We conducted beach-cast debris transect surveys on Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada in 2012-2017 to (1) establish a baseline against which to track future changes in stranded debris on this small, uninhabited island; and (2) time the arrival in western North America of debris released by the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. Most (90%) of the six-year total of 6784 debris items tallied was composed of Styrofoam or plastic. The number of debris items peaked in 2014 (waste Styrofoam, rope) and 2015 (waste plastic, wood), and cumulative totals for all debris types were ca. 50% higher in 2014-15 than in 2012-13 and 2016-17. The peaks in 2014-15 probably represented the arrival of the bulk of the tsunami debris, based on close correspondence with forecasting models and debris surveys elsewhere. A fuller understanding of the movement of the Tohoku tsunami debris will require information from other beach monitoring programs.

Contaminants in magnificent frigatebird eggs from Barbuda, West Indies.

We examined persistent organic pollutant and trace element concentrations in eggs of magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens), a species of conservation concern breeding in the West Indies. Despite that frigatebirds feed at high positions in tropical marine food chains, we detected low levels of most contaminants, suggesting limited contamination of their prey.