Rubber Duckies and Ocean Science
Vinyl Bath Toys Lost in the Pacific Helped Scientists With Research
Mar 13, 2009
The accident happened on Jan 10, 1992 when high seas and bad weather dislodged a container on a ship bound from Asia to the United States. The container broke open, releasing 28,800 buoyant bath toys into the Subpolar Gyre, a current that circulates counterclockwise around the North Pacific. Yellow rubber duckies, green frogs, blue turtles, and red beavers went for an epic swim, but they didn’t go unsupervised—oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer tracked them through the world’s oceans.
Friendly Floatees—The First Years
The rubber ducks and other toys, called “Floatees” by the manufacturer, bore the imprint “The First Years.” Because of this easy means to identify them, and because there were so many of them, the drifting toys were perfect for studying the paths and speed of ocean currents. Beachcombers everywhere kept a look-out for the highly visible yellow rubber ducks—details of where and when the toys washed up on ocean beaches over fifteen years became scientific data.
Where the Floatee Rubber Duckies Went—a Timeline
The plastic bath toys drifted apart in the Pacific and some even made it through the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1992 – About two out of three ducks and their friends headed south, some eventually washing up on beaches in Indonesia, Australia, and western South America. The remaining third were caught in the Subpolar Gyre. The current deposited many of them on the shores of Alaska in late summer and fall. Of those that stayed at sea, a few drifted through the Bering Strait and headed east through the Arctic Ocean.
- 1993 – More toys left the Subpolar Gyre to wash up on the shores of Japan, but many continued back across the North Pacific for the second time.
- 1994 – A second batch of ducks, turtles, frogs, and beavers washed up in Alaska near Sitka, having made a complete circuit of the North Pacific and started round again.
- 1998 – Rubber ducks completed their second circle in the Subpolar Gyre, showing up in Alaska once again, confirming that the trip takes two to four years.
- 2000 – The first wave of Floatees appeared in the North Atlantic, having crossed the North Pole in the ice.
- 2001 – Floatees were still out there, washing up in Alaska after three trips around the North Pacific.
- 2003 – As expected, a few Floatees beached along the eastern United States. Predictions suggested that some would cross the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. Obligingly, a frog turned up in Scotland.
- 2004 – Sitka welcomed its fifth landing of Floatees. The ducks and beavers were bleached to white but the frogs and turtles remained green and blue.
- 2007 – A beached rubber duck was recovered in southern England.
Rubber Ducks on the Beach
Even though more than fifteen years have passed since the bath toys were set adrift in the Pacific, some are probably still out there. Beachcombers on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic should keep their eyes open – the Floatees can still tell us more about ocean currents and the way that water moves around the Earth. If one should turn up, contact Curt Ebbesmeyer.
The Book – Flotsametrics and the Floating World
With co-author Eric Scigliano, Curt Ebbesmeyer has chronicled his studies of the world-traveling bath toys and other flotsam. The book, Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science, is published by Smithsonian Books (New York, 2009).
Sources:
"Beachcombing Science from Bath Toys." Ebbesmeyer, Curt. beachcombersalert.org
"Plastic Duck Armada is Heading for Britain After 15-year Global Voyage." de Bruxelles, Simon. Timesonline, June 28, 2007.
"Rubber Ducks Circumnavigate the Globe." RubaDuck. Rubaduck.com
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