Just last week a local team formed to prowl our beaches looking for debris from the March 2011 tsunami in Japan. And it looks like maybe just in time. Earlier this week, a dock washed up on Agate Beach near Newport, Ore., and was soon therafter verified to have been broken up and swept asea by the tsunami.

OK, so that's more than 300 miles north of us. But still. It's enormous, fascinating ... and chilling.

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has been providing updates on its web page, along with photos, including ones of a metal placard attached to the dock with Japanese writing on it that helped officials trace the dock back to a port in the city of Misawa, according to a story in The Oregonian:

and of the dock itself:

and of the flora and fauna covering the dock, much of it considered invasive, which crews have been scraping off the dock to prevent their spread in local waters. Below, a shot of exotic mussels (Mytilus edulis or M. galloprovicialis), according to Oregon State Parks), plus unidentified barnacles: