It's Back! Westport South Beach Historical Society brings you #wildfloats2023!
From January to Memorial Day 2023, one thousand authentic Japanese glass fishing floats will be released along our Westport Beaches with the goal of tidal landings and beach finds during the Beachcombing season. The event is funded by the City of Westport lodging tax funds as an incentive to market our town in the winter months. Because this is a wild release, we encourage locals to help our visitors enjoy this tradition along with us and help keep them safe and pointed in the right direction.
We see so many visitors and families engage in beachcombing and the hope of finding a "real" float and the nostalgia of classic beachcombing memories. We have worked with our expert "float Fairies and "wranglers" on strategies to get the bulk of the floats to land across a short window of the South Beach. As Washington's "Original Beach Town," Westport is the first and only "real float" event that gets people onto the beaches like the old days and a chance to take home an actual float Japanese glass float find.
The Maritime Museum uses "real floats," most recently from Tsunami cleanup in Japan and imported back to the USA. These are actual working floats as opposed to decorative thin-skinned art floats. Most floats are shades of green because that is the color of glass from recycled sake bottles, as has been the tradition in Japan. These heavy glass floats are survivors and not prone to breakage.
The floats are hand etched with "WSBHS 2023" to identify floats released from the program as opposed to what we refer to as "Truly Wild" floats that are still found with regularity by lucky beachcombers. I am one of the folks who engrave our floats for #wildfloats2023. We occasionally pick out a float with a layer of dried mud and cannot help making a connection. This float, which ended up being swept into a muddy debris field as a coastal fishing village was swept away, has made its way across the Pacific to another fishing community.
We encourage everyone to share their finds through social media and to make sure to use hashtags #wildfloats2023 and #Experiencewestport. Visitors who want to learn more about beachcombing can visit the Maritime Museum and check out our collection of South Beach combed floats and unique collector floats.
#Wildfloat etiquette; Please do not hog floats. The nature of a wild release means that occasionally they will bunch up. If you find several, please make one your bag limit and leave some for others to discover. The program's goal is to share the experience and stories with our visitors.
About the Author
John Shaw is the Executive Director of the Westport South Beach Historical Society which operates the Westport Maritime Museum, Grays Harbor Lighthouse and the Furford Cranberry Museum.
He is a retired yacht builder with strong interests in Grays Harbors Maritime History. He also serves on Grays Harbors Marine Resource Committee and is Board Chair of the Aberdeen Museum of History.