You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Rubber Ducks End 15-Year Odyssey
2007-06-30
Hundreds of rubber ducks are expected to appear off the coast of Cornwall - having been afloat at sea for the past 15 years. The wayward bath toys have covered 17,000 miles since they accidentally fell overboard in the Pacific Ocean during a storm in January, 1992.

They were among a consignment of 28,800 plastic ducks, beavers, turtles and frogs that were being taken from Hong Kong to Washington State in the US.
Posted by:Mike

#8  Things have been discovered to drift from the Bering Strait to the north Atlantic presumably via the northern route. SOURCE
Drifts from the area north of Bering Strait in the Chukchi Sea have been reported from several locations in the North Atlantic: wreckage from The Jeannette frozen in the pack ice near Hearld Island in November 1879 was found 5 years later on the southwestern coast of Greenland; three drift casks containing messages released near Point Barrow in 1899 and 1900 were recovered 6-8 years later on the northern coasts of Norway and Iceland and the southwest coast of Greenland; several bottles released in the vicinity of Nome, Alaska, were found approximately 10 years later in Iceland, Ireland, and Norway; and a drift bottle, released June 26, 1979, in the Bering Strait was found in western Scotland 7 years later on July 6, 1986.
I think I read about some of the ducks being found a few years ago off Newfoundland, but didn't find a reference this time.
Posted by: GK   2007-06-30 18:25  

#7  The wayward bath toys have covered 17,000 miles since they accidentally fell overboard . . .

Has anyone considered that maybe they were trying to escape?
Posted by: GORT   2007-06-30 18:01  

#6  Looks like they came around Cape Horn -

The plastic animals have already reached places as diverse as Indonesia, Australia and South America.

But Alaska has proved a popular washing up point for the washtime toys.

Between 1993 and 2005 Alaska residents Dean Orbison and his son Tyler collected 121 plastic animals as they came ashore near the city of Sitka.
Posted by: Bobby   2007-06-30 17:22  

#5  I want to know just what route they took to get fromt he Pacific to the Atlantic. The Indian Ocean? The Strait of Magellan? How'd they travel?

Panama Canal. Or the Suez Canal and then the Med.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2007-06-30 15:25  

#4  I think these are Palestinians who tried to emigrate to another arab country but could never gain admittance.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2007-06-30 13:24  

#3  You mean this wasn't accomplished by the necessary and open ended pork'federal grant' so worshiped by universities and their hack representatives?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-06-30 13:22  

#2  Not the Northwest Passage, perhaps; but they certainly have given oceanographers plenty to study. I want to know just what route they took to get fromt he Pacific to the Atlantic. The Indian Ocean? The Strait of Magellan? How'd they travel?
Posted by: mom   2007-06-30 13:06  

#1  hmmmm did they discover the Northwest Passage?
Posted by: Frank G   2007-06-30 12:57  

00:00