• Show and tell: Mark Farley, visitor center manager at the Hatfield Marine Science Center of Oregon State University in Newport, briefs visitors about the facility's tsunami simulator in February. | KYODO
    Show and tell: Mark Farley, visitor center manager at the Hatfield Marine Science Center of Oregon State University in Newport, briefs visitors about the facility's tsunami simulator in February. | KYODO
  • Transplant: A dock from the Tohoku region that drifted across the Pacific Ocean after being washed away by the March 2011 tsunami is seen on a beach in Newport, Oregon, in July 2012. | HATFIELD MARINE SCIENCE CENTER OF OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY/KYODO
    Transplant: A dock from the Tohoku region that drifted across the Pacific Ocean after being washed away by the March 2011 tsunami is seen on a beach in Newport, Oregon, in July 2012. | HATFIELD MARINE SCIENCE CENTER OF OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY/KYODO
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NEWPORT, OREGON – When a massive dock drifted across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the U.S. West Coast after the Great East Japan Earthquake, it brought along more than the invasive “wakame” kelp and mussels that were attached to it. The city of Newport, Oregon, where the docked beached itself last June, noticed the high interest it was generating and put it to good use.

Kate Brown, 55, a resident of Newport, was one of those who rushed to see the dock after hearing about it. Touching it, she thought back to what happened in Japan, recalling horrific images of entire communities being swallowed by the ocean.

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