When a container of bath toys, including yellow rubber ducks, fell into the Pacific Ocean in January , it allowed scientists such as Curtis Ebbesmeyer to gain insight into the hidden world of ocean currents.
Over the years, the ducks washed up on several different continents, revealing a worldwide network of currents, that had been invisible. Over the next 25 years, the plastic toys washed up all over the world.
Many landed on the coast of Alaska, some went south to Australia, and remarkably some even went through the Arctic ice via the Bering Straits, to pop up in the Atlantic years later. Many have been found intact, hardly even bleached, years after they entered the sea. The ducks also tell us that we are connected to everywhere in the Big Blue ocean, and that a piece of plastic dropped at the coast might well end up thousands of miles away in the most remote parts of our planet, to potentially wreak havoc to marine creatures - no doubt not the intention of the careless litter bug.
Reconstructing the release of these ducks presented the team with a fresh challenge. While we wanted to tell their story, the team was also well aware of the ironies of putting plastic ducks in the sea. We were 30miles off the coast of Costa Rica with several large nets, an enthusiastic team and a drone with its pilots Mark Sharman and Jack Delf. We were always vigilant to collect every single duck. Ducks overboard! What have 29, plastic toys that fell overboard a cargo ship in been doing for the last 21 years?
Dawn of the super-ports? How are ports adapting to cope with the new generation of giant cargo ships? Where is the world's busiest airport? London, Beijing or somewhere in the United States: Where is the world's busiest airport? Find out in our detailed infographic. Are gondolas urban transport solution? Urban gondolas are offering cheap and effective methods of mass-transportation in some of South America's biggest cities.
Linking Europe and Asia by rail. The Silk Road was once a series of dusty trails forged by traders traveling between Asia and Europe. Today it takes the form of a bustling railway. Introducing the world's biggest ship.
An all new class of container ship, the Triple E is a quarter-of-a-mile long and built from enough steel to construct 8 Eiffel Towers. Take a peek at some of the most exciting travel infrastructure projects currently in the works around the world. In , the World Shipping Council carried out a survey and found that at least 2, containers were lost at sea every year.
However, they believe the actual figure may be much larger, with many of the missing containers not being reported to authorities. Toys are one of the most common items to be found washing up on shores, such as in when a shipment containing over a million Lego pieces was lost, as they are often made of plastic and are buoyant enough to float.
Not every story that sees thousands of plastic ducks being dumped into a body of water has to be negative. There are numerous events all around the planet that see people racing the little toys in rivers and lakes, often to try and raise money for charity. A good example is the annual Windy City Rubber Duck Derby in Chicago, which sees more than 50, ducks emptied into the river by a truck and prizes given to the owners of those who reach the finish line first.
While toys are particularly common, plenty of other oddities have found their way into the seas around the world. There have been several reports of beachgoers suddenly coming across huge collections of Nike trainers, computer equipment, and even car tires. These have included robotic hands and false teeth. The phenomenon perfectly illustrates how marine pollution can spread around the world and killing our sea life.
About four containers a day are washed overboard and eventually spill their contents into our seas. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team?
0コメント