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Drifting Bath Toys Expected To Hit New England
gsx1400 writes " Auntie Beeb is reporting on the 11 year, 5,000+ mile journey by a container load of rubber ducks, The article doesn't go into specifics, but a more detailed analysis of this and other long-distance flotsam is here. This has nasty connotations for the Cargo of the SS Mulheim, which ran aground earlier this year in Cornwall, and has been left to break up. It's estimated that up to 10,000 containers are washed off ships each year, and many of them do not sink, but drift around our oceans, causing pollution and shipping hazards."
A similar thing happened in 1999-2001. When, among other things, 50,000 Nike shoes drifted around the globe. This National Geographic's article discusses this incident and goes into more detail on the whole phenomena of drifting cargo.
Call me crazy, but what difference does it make if a container full of 'pollution' falls off a ship and sinks, or falls off a ship and floats? Still pollutes the oceans doesn't it?
The most evil kind of evil is the cute kind of evil. Beware the little duckies.
In our case, the impact was a glancing blow, and although it did make a hole in the hull, we were able to patch it sufficiently to keep us afloat. If we had hit the thing squarely, though, the boat would definitely have sunk. Nasty.
It's always bothered me, ever since, every time I look at those container ships in harbour; there is nothing more than gravity holding those damn containers down.
"They're toys for two-year olds, and they're called Floatees, and they're meant to go into the bathtub with the kids," recounts Ebbesmeyer. "Each package has a green frog and a blue turtle and a yellow duck and a red beaver."
... huh huh. "Red Beaver." eh heh heh.
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
I pity the poor ocean-dwelling carnivores which must have gotten a rude shock when they tried to dine on the group of slow-moving, brightly-colored objects thinking them the chance of a lifetime:
Killer whale observes slowly drifting flock of ducks and can't believe his luck.
"Sweet manna from heaven! Bonzai!"
Rises up out of water below them with his huge mouth filled to capacity with the little toys. Seconds later...
"Ptew!" ..spits them out... "What kind of cruel fuckin' joke is this? Goddamn humans!"
GMD
watch this
Now when hundreds of thousands bundles of unmarked cash in nice vacuum-packed plastic wrap start washing on shore... lemme know, k?
.unsigged
Now appearing at your local Red Lobster... Rubber Duck Chowder... Fillet of Rubber Duck... Rubber Duck Scampi... all under $10
They string nets right across the top of the river, though, so that the duckies can't escape. (And the duckies are actually rented most of the time, which really makes it bizarre... So i guess it's time for another ocean duckie race!!! quick, somebody head out there and number the ducks...
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
Or was that Affleck? I often confuse these two almost-lifelike media characters.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This is not the first such monster attack against New England. I recall something like this reported on a Cincinatti radio station during the 1970's:
"Monster lizard ravages East Coast! Mayors in five New England cities have issued emergency requests for federal disaster relief as a result of a giant lizard that descended on the East Coast last night! Officials say that this lizard, the worst since '78, has devastated transportation, disrupted communication and left many hundreds homeless!"
(Les Nessman reporting)
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Why don't they put GPS devices on the ducks so they can track their paths the whole way?
Better yet, why don't they put RFID's on the duckies to prevent it the next time someone steals a million from Wal*Mart and dumps them in a river?
The contents were 1) Plastic wrapped bags of money, and 2) Large plastic wrapped bales of pot.
Unfortunately, the US Customs agents had also heard of it too and were preventing people from taking "souvenirs".
..........FULL STOP.
I wonder how many of these duckies are eaten by marine animals. Not many fish teach their children to not eat rubber duckies.
-- Cheers!
I really should take up this beachcombing thing. I mean, can you imagine how cool it'd be if I found something from thisship that was washed up on the beach!
oh yeah those rubber ducks pose a real hazard to shipping. i hear the captain of an oil tanker was out for a swim recently and he almost choked on one.
Ten thousand! With no responsibility for leaving behind a hazard. The cost of insurance seems to be cheaper than actually tying these things down.
I wonder if money can be made by salvaging abandoned containers. Is this legal, or once it's rescued will you just have the contents taken from you?
I can see it now: some goofball terrorist will plant anthrax or the like in a rubber duck and it will travel the world without them having to step a single foot on a boat or plane, and suddenly there will be a duck panic.
Batman villians used to seem silly until the likes of Osama popped up.
Table-ized A.I.
Well, you asked me to call you that.
I'm always happy to oblige... swould you like me to call you an idiot too?
--Charlie
Had another friend (we were both kids in jr. high) who stole a briefcase from the seat of a jeep and discovered it was full of money. I don't know what he did with it (I know he didn't keep it) but when the people who owned the briefcase caught up with him they broke both his hands. Apparently being a "baler" was considered a good living by many, but I dunno if I'd want to live with the risks. If they'd break the hands of a kid, you just know how they're gonna deal with adults.
It is pretty much impossible to design something to "float" passivly at a fixed distance underwater. If denser than water, it sinks, if less dense, some portion (potentially small) will be above water, if exactly equal it will drift up and down with the currents.
Some friends were on a research expedition to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and found this bottle, which had been adrift 15 years from Japan. Does anyone know Emi Komasu?
...
everyday when I
make my way to the tubbie
I find a little fellow
that's cute and yellow and chubby
rub-a-dub-dubbie
Posting as AC so I don't have to openly admit I know the song.
...Hate to boring and serious, but it is actually a threat to marine wildlife. Add up all the nondegradable rubbish floating around out there that sea life can be poisoned by, the illegally dumped engine oil, broken up cargos, dumped chemical and radioactive nasties, and you're not looking at doing the environment any favours. What comes around, turns around.
ok I am a vegetarian, so what do I care, but hey, you guys who like sea food, woahh, I thought you'd be a little bit worried about the stuff your favourite dish has been eating.... (feel free to make fun veggie jokes, I like em too ;-) , my favourite dishes are grown in shit, but hey it's worth thinking about eh?....).
We really should try to clean up the seas and stop being free and easy about how we transport and dump our crap, it will all come back eventually. I grew up by the English Channel, one of the busiest sea ways in the world, umm, do I ever go swimming in there? take a guess.....
I hadn't seen that online encyclopedia before. Has to be the nicest one that doesn't require a subscription fee.