This is the story of the incredible journey of some 29,000 plastic bath toys.
In January 1992 boxes of these bath time toys were washed overboard off a Chinese container ship bound for the USA, and set free into the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
As with many of my own favourite plastic finds, these objects, yellow ducks, blue turtles, red beavers and green frogs were designed to survive at sea, and did so very well for fifteen years adrift.
They have crossed the Pacific ocean, landing in Hawaii, and after spending years frozen in the Artic ice pack, are now (in 2007) heading for the South West coast of the UK.
Although faded to almost white, they were expected to land 10 years ago, though I have yet to find one. Oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer has however found many of them. The retired oceanographer has dedicated recent years to tracking various container spills and has amassed a large collection and network of beach combing followers, and there was even a £50 bounty at the time of the original article in June 2007.
Read the original article here