State officials are spending the weekend cleaning and inspecting a 20-foot fishing boat that washed ashore near Ilwaco on Friday.
Curt Hart with Washington's Department of Ecology says the boat is being treated as tsunami debris, pending a positive ID from the Japanese consulate. He says Fish and Wildlife workers have taken the boat close to the entrance of Cape Disappointment State Park, and have been removing and bagging as many sea animals as they can find.
Workers with Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife removing potentially invasive species from the boat that washed up at Cape Disappointment last Friday.
Curt Hart / Washington Department of Ecology
"Looking at things like crab species that don't belong here, starfish species," Hart said. "There's an animal called a tunicate that will adhere itself to docks and boats. There's worry could this have had tunicates from Asia on it?"
The boat will be on display at the park for the next week or so.
Hart says it's too soon to say how much removing the boat would cost, but he estimates it's likely to be far less expensive than the removal of the dock that washed up in Newport, on the Oregon coast, last week.
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire has scheduled a news conference tomorrow (Monday) to talk about what the state is doing about tsunami debris.
