Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan and Derelict

Flotsam, Jetsam, Lagan and Derelict was Originally Posted on March 22, 2012 by lavarock

There are four terms of with which you may not be familiar. They are flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict.

Flotsam describes items floating in the water from a wreck of a ship (and/or its cargo). Jetsam describes items, which was intentionally thrown overboard to try to save a ship. Lagan describes items, which have sunk to the bottom of the sea and may be marked with a buoy and there may be a recovery attempt. Derelict is cargo sitting on the bottom of the sea which will not be recovered.

Thus the first 3 items might be involved in recovery by insurance companies or their owner.

However, none of the above accurately describes the mass below.

When we say that Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific, many people don’t understand just how remote we are. Even in latitude with Mexico City, we are perhaps 2300 miles (straight line) west of the mainland of the U.S. The state of Hawaii also extends 1500 miles from the Hilo side of the Big Island across the Pacific to at least Midway (which is 140 nautical miles east of the International dateline).

I mention all this because you may start to hear news items about Midway in the next few weeks.

A year ago there was a terrific earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. Debris from that event will begin hitting Midway soon and next year the first of thousands of tons of floating items will arrive in the “neighbor island” part of Hawaii. Between Midway and the Big Island are 130 islands and atolls in the state. None will be spared the mass.

Officials here are meeting to decide just how to handle the debris. I’m sure this will involve deciding what to do with trash and how to handle items, which might be of a personal or identifiable origin.