The Story of the Friendly Floatees

A shipment of Friendly Floatee toys, produced by The First Years Inc. in China, set sail from Hong Kong aboard the Evergreen Ever Laurel, bound for Tacoma, Washington. On January 10, 1992, amidst a storm in the North Pacific Ocean near the International Date Line, twelve 40-foot intermodal containers fell overboard, one of which contained 28,800 Floatees – child's bath toys in various shapes: red beavers, green frogs, blue turtles, and yellow ducks. The container likely opened due to collisions with other containers or the ship itself, allowing the Floatees to escape as their cardboard packaging quickly deteriorated in seawater, despite lacking holes to take on water. Many bath animals reached the shores of Alaska, others Japan, the northern Bering Strait, and even crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Although it was a large-scale pollution event, scientists were able to learn a lot from it about how ocean currents can transport plastic around the world. Oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and James Ingraham, engaged in ocean surface current modeling, seized the opportunity presented by the massive release of objects into the ocean. Unlike the traditional method of releasing 500-1000 drift bottles, this event promised a higher recovery rate, given that the typical recovery rate from the Pacific Ocean is around 2%. They anticipated closer to 600 recoveries rather than the 10 to 20 seen with drift bottle releases. Additionally, they were already monitoring various other flotsam spills, such as 61,000 Nike running shoes lost overboard in 1990.

Ten months later, the first Floatees began washing up along the Alaskan coast. The initial discovery of ten toys near Sitka, Alaska on November 16, 1992, approximately 3,200 kilometers from their origin, marked the beginning of a concerted effort by Ebbesmeyer, Ingraham, and others to locate hundreds of beached Floatees over an 850-kilometer shoreline. By August 1993, a total of 400 Floatees were found along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Alaska, representing a recovery rate of 1.4%. These landfalls were recorded in Ingraham's computer model OSCUR, which utilizes air pressure data dating back to 1967 to calculate wind patterns and ocean surface currents. While primarily designed for fisheries purposes, OSCUR also aids in predicting flotsam movements and the probable locations of items lost at sea.This allowed them to gain a better understanding of the intricate surface currents that interconnect all seas and oceans. The story underscores the fact that the ocean is, in essence, one entity. The five oceans we learned about in school would be better recognized as part of that single ocean (see also Janssen & mees, De Onbekende Zee, 2023).

 

 

Ten months later, the first Floatees began washing up along the Alaskan coast. The initial discovery of ten toys near Sitka, Alaska on November 16, 1992, approximately 3,200 kilometers from their origin, marked the beginning of a concerted effort by Ebbesmeyer, Ingraham, and others to locate hundreds of beached Floatees over an 850-kilometer shoreline. By August 1993, a total of 400 Floatees were found along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Alaska, representing a recovery rate of 1.4%. These landfalls were recorded in Ingraham's computer model OSCUR, which utilizes air pressure data dating back to 1967 to calculate wind patterns and ocean surface currents. While primarily designed for fisheries purposes, OSCUR also aids in predicting flotsam movements and the probable locations of items lost at sea.This allowed them to gain a better understanding of the intricate surface currents that interconnect all seas and oceans. The story underscores the fact that the ocean is, in essence, one entity. The five oceans we learned about in school would be better recognized as part of that single ocean (see also Janssen & mees, De Onbekende Zee, 2023).

 

 

The Spilhaus Projection maps what was once called “the Seven Seas*” as a single body of seawater, vast and unbroken. This mind-expanding perspective on the amazing life-support system of our blue planet shows the importance of restoring and protecting the ocean for the sake of all living things.

 

The story of the bath toys and the unified sea aligns with my research focus on plastic marine creatures that we, humans,  bring to beaches on sunny days. I plan to interweave this tale with the enchanting stories of unicorns