28 June 2007

Attack of the friendly floatees

According to today’s Times, british beaches could face a new invader in the form of a flotilla of plastic ducks.

For 15 years oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking nearly 30,000 plastic bath toys that were released into the Pacific Ocean when a container was washed off a cargo ship. Some of the ducks ( known as Friendly Floatees) are expected to reach Britain after a journey of nearly 17,000 miles, having crossed the Arctic Ocean frozen into pack ice, bobbed the length of Greenland and been carried down the eastern seaboard of the United States.

The odyssey began on January 29, 1992. Two thirds of them floated south through the tropics, landing months later on the shores of Indonesia, Australia and South America. But 10,000 headed north and by the end of the year were off Alaska and heading back westwards. It took three years for the ducks to circle east to Japan, past the original drop site and then back to Alaska on a current known as the North Pacific Gyre before continuing north towards the Arctic.

Many were stranded as the currents took them through the Bering Strait, but eight years after their journey began, the ducks had made it through the Arctic and into the North Atlantic. Simon Boxall, of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, said that the ducks offered a great opportunity for climate change research. “They are a nice tracer for what the currents are doing as they travel around the world”

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if their squeakers still work.

jams o donnell said...

You never know.

beakerkin said...

There is a comercial in this story just waiting to be written.

Next time use Fed Ex.....

I will post the must anticipated Jams interview on my site. Fortunately for you there will be no questions on the Phantom Bialey
situation in the UK. There are rumors that these under appreciated breakfast treats are available in the UK.

jams o donnell said...

Hmm and have them on a desert island with Tom Hanks???

Bring on teh questions. I'll answer them over the weekend (though I'm out most of Saturday). Beter not to ask about breakfast treats - breakfast used to be several coffees and several cigarettes. Now it's just the coffee

elasticwaistbandlady said...

We have one. It hasn't traveled much beyond the current of the bathtub water since 1995. It has survived the constant enemy onslaught from 6 kids though which warrants some sort of Rubber Duckie Medal Of Valor, I suppose.

jams o donnell said...

Indeed it does. Six kids and still floating? Does it still squeak? I think it should get the Congression Medal of Honour and a VC now!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Our never squeaked. I feel like I've really deprived my children now. :(

I also have to treat it with mildew remover every once in awhile.

jams o donnell said...

Aww what a poor deprived little duck!