"It's amazing what a duck can teach you." -Curt Ebbesmeyer, oceanographer
Here is the story of some intrepid rubber ducks who are out to
circumnavigate the globe, or disintegrate trying. They began their quest
in 1992 by jumping ship in the middle of the Pacific, and have been
sighted at exotic points from Kamchatka to Hawaii to Iceland ever since.
On the way, they have provided excellent data points for ocean current
research. And while their color has faded from cheery yellow to bone
white, their adventurous spirit remains, and their legend will live on in
history.
Timeline
10 January 1992, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
Nearly 29,000 First Years bath toys,
including bright yellow rubber ducks, are spilled from a container cargo ship in the
Pacific Ocean (at 44ºN, 178ºE, in fact).
16 November 1992
Caught in the Subpolar Gyre (counter-clockwise ocean
current in the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Siberia), the ducks take 10
months to begin landing on the shores of Alaska.
Early 1995
The ducks take three years to circle around, East from
the drop site to Alaska, then all the way West and South to Japan before
turning back North and East, passing the original drop site and again
landing in North America. Some ducks are even found in Hawaii. The
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has worked out that
the ducks travel approximately 50% faster than the water in the current.
1995-2000
Some intrepid ducks escape the Subpolar Gyre
and head North, through the Bering Straight and into the frozen waters of
the Arctic. Frozen into the ice, the ducks travel slowly across the Pole,
moving ever Eastward.
2000
Ducks begin reaching the North Atlantic,
where they begin to thaw and move Southward. Soon ducks are sighted
bobbing in the waves from Maine to Massachusetts.
2001
Ducks are tracked in the area where the
Titanic sunk.
July to December 2003
The First Years offers a $100 savings bond
reward for the recovery of wayward ducks from the 1992 spill. To be
valid, ducks must be sent to the First Years, and must be found in New
England, Canada or Iceland. Britain is told to prepare for an ‘invasion’
of the wayward ducks, as well.
UPDATE: Rubber Ducks Circumnavigate the Globe
2007 July 15
According to an article in England’s
“Daily Mail”, the first “Friendly Floatee” rubber duck has been found in the UK. As predicted by oceanographers, some of the 29,000 rubber ducks (and
frogs, beavers and turtles) accidentally lost at sea in 1992 are now beginning to make landfall in Britain. The wayward rubber duck was found by Penny
Harris, 60, as she walked her dog on a Devon beach. Covered in brown seaweed and barnacle-encrusted, the faded and partially decomposed toy has been
sent to manufacturer The First Years in order to claim the $100 finders reward offered by the company.
Seattle oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who has
been tracking ocean-going oddities since 1991, predicts another wave of
ducks will make landfall in North America in 2007. Dr. Ebbesmeyer’s work
in ocean currents, and the stuff that floats on them, has called worldwide
attention to the issue of ocean pollution. It is estimated that 10,000
shipping containers fall into the ocean each year, adding to the millions
of bits of trash and junk floating around the world. After decades of
exposure to the elements, most garbage breaks down into a layer of plastic
and chemical scum that is coating the surface of oceans worldwide.
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