Substantial funding for studies on Japanese tsunami debris and its biota has been provided by the Ministry of the Environment in Japan through PICES. My funding is for the algae.  The algae make up 68 of the ~200 identified species on debris– and about 66% of these are already reported to occur in the NE Pacific.  Some of these are natural distributions and some are from earlier invasions.  In many cases, the genetic strains found in our waters vary slightly from those found on debris.  Currently, our algal project is doing comparative sequencing of these species to determine if the sources of our resident species are from debris or from Asia or elsewhere around the globe.  It has long been recognized that species are transported by currents from Japan to the NE Pacific.  But, the rate of transport has increased dramatically with debris from the tsunami.  About 75% of the arriving algal species are reproductive (on the debris), and it will be astonishing if none recruit in our waters.