Thursday, July 05, 2007

Extreme rubber duckie adventure

Joining the extreme vacation trend, a flotilla of Rubber Duckies have now travelled 17,000 miles on the ocean with nothing more than their wits.

Washed overboard from a cargo ship in the North Pacific Ocean, the duckies busted out of their cargo container and began their trip. Traveling with a team of blue turtles and green frogs 29,000 strong, they've now wandered the ocean for 15 years.

The roughest part of their trip? Years frozen in an Arctic ice pack. Where are they now? In the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, headed for Britain. Tired and bleached white by the sun, who knows how much longer they'll keep going.

Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking them for years and thinks many will probably make landfall in England and stay put. The Duckies were unavailable for comment, but they're rumored to be considering a book deal.

2 comments:

Kevin Zelnio said...

I know molecular ecologists that have ground-truthed some of their population genetic models for larval dispersal using data from the rubber duckies.

Mark Powell said...

who knew rubber duckies could be so useful?