A cargo ship departed Hong Kong sometime in January 1992 headed for the Port of Tacoma in Washington State. As it reached the International Date Line a storm was brewing with hurricane-like winds. During this time a container of some 28,000 bright yellow rubber ducks was dumped in the ocean making the world’s seas its bathtub.
Journalist Donovan Hohn took on the mission of tracking down the bobbing rubber ducks, thinking he could do it all from his desk. But it wasn’t that simple. His book Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them, chronicles his journey from Alaska, Hawaii, China, and the Arctic.
Hohn’s adventure started out as looking for toys but he said “When I set out following these toys, I didn’t expect it to turn into an environmental story.” He continued. “…much of it is plastic – persists. It lasts visibly for decades and chemically for centuries because it doesn’t biodegrade.”
2000 ducks found themselves trapped in the North Pacific Gyre. The gyre is one of eleven major oceanic gyres in the world. The North Pacific Gyre’s ocean currents have a clockwise circular pattern driven by four prevailing ocean currents. It is also called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch due to the enormous amount of man-made marine debris.
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a retired oceanographer said of the toys and the garbage patch, “We always knew that this gyre existed. But until the ducks came along, we didn’t know how long it took to complete a circuit.” It takes about three years.
The rubber ducks did help raise awareness of the garbage patch. Plastic trash in our oceans is a global issue. Ebbesmeyer added, “The ones (ducks) washing up in Alaska after 19 years are still in pretty good shape.”
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