In 1992, a container ship leaving Hong Kong lost 28,800 plastic bath toys overboard in the North Pacific, and oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer spent the next two decades tracking yellow ducks and blue turtles as they washed up in Alaska, Maine, and eventually the coast of Scotland, quietly rewriting the textbook map of ocean currents. (opens in new tab)

On January 10, 1992, a container ship hit a violent storm somewhere near the International Date Line on its way from Hong Kong to Tacoma, Washington. Twelve shipping containers slid off the deck and into the cold North Pacific. One of them split open, releasing 28,800 plastic bath toys — yellow ducks, red beavers, green […]