Flotsam Floats For Science
By Helen Potter
Never ones to let anything go to waste, scientists are using goods that fall overboard in the Pacific to learn more about ocean currents.
Worldwide about 10,000 containers fall overboard each year, and whilst most isn't of interest, anything that drops between eastern Asia and North America is being used to find out more about the Pacific Subarctic Gyre.
Retired oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer and his colleagues have used almost a century's worth of data on flotsam to plot the currents and swirls in the gyre. Now they have calculated that a full lap takes three years and allowed the team to identify long term changes in salinity and water temperature.
Particularly useful to the project were containers that dropped goods with a unique shipping code, allowing their point of entry to be traced, for example 80,000 Nike trainers which went overboard in May 1990. About 2,000 of the shoes have since turned up on beaches, Ebbesmeyer keeping track of finds via a network of beachcombers.
The advantage of using floating junk over probes is simple - the probes travel mainly underwater and only surface to take readings - meaning that surface currents aren't accurately mapped. Furthermore the battery life of a probe is only a few months when it has travelled a mere 1000km.
A Japanese donor has now provided $100,000 for researchers to release 500 wooden tops into the sea off Japan every two months for two years. Each top is printed with Ebbesmeyer's name, home address and e-mail to allow the finders to report the location of it. However, there's no point in rushing to the American West Coast just yet – the currents will take another year or so to push the tops all the way across the Pacific.
Still, your beach holiday need not be wasted; as Curtis Ebbesmeyer points out, "There's a lot of scientific information just lying on the beach."
To report interesting items of flotsam that have washed ashore, send an e-mail to Curtis Ebbesmeyer at [email protected]. Be sure to include a description of the item, the circumstances of its discovery (location, date, weather conditions, etc.), and pictures of the item if possible.
Detailed information about the release of wooden tops off Japan in 2005 and 2006 can be found at here. Less detailed information can be found about our very own Helen here. And last but not least, you can take a dip into an ocean of unlikely science below:
- Strange - A fishy tale about arms
- News - Rotten fish tastes nasty - shocker!
- Strange - Sensational seaweed
- Review - Mysteries of the deep
Worldwide about 10,000 containers fall overboard each year, and whilst most isn't of interest, anything that drops between eastern Asia and North America is being used to find out more about the Pacific Subarctic Gyre.
Retired oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer and his colleagues have used almost a century's worth of data on flotsam to plot the currents and swirls in the gyre. Now they have calculated that a full lap takes three years and allowed the team to identify long term changes in salinity and water temperature.
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The advantage of using floating junk over probes is simple - the probes travel mainly underwater and only surface to take readings - meaning that surface currents aren't accurately mapped. Furthermore the battery life of a probe is only a few months when it has travelled a mere 1000km.
A Japanese donor has now provided $100,000 for researchers to release 500 wooden tops into the sea off Japan every two months for two years. Each top is printed with Ebbesmeyer's name, home address and e-mail to allow the finders to report the location of it. However, there's no point in rushing to the American West Coast just yet – the currents will take another year or so to push the tops all the way across the Pacific.
Still, your beach holiday need not be wasted; as Curtis Ebbesmeyer points out, "There's a lot of scientific information just lying on the beach."
To report interesting items of flotsam that have washed ashore, send an e-mail to Curtis Ebbesmeyer at [email protected]. Be sure to include a description of the item, the circumstances of its discovery (location, date, weather conditions, etc.), and pictures of the item if possible.
Detailed information about the release of wooden tops off Japan in 2005 and 2006 can be found at here. Less detailed information can be found about our very own Helen here. And last but not least, you can take a dip into an ocean of unlikely science below:
- Strange - A fishy tale about arms
- News - Rotten fish tastes nasty - shocker!
- Strange - Sensational seaweed
- Review - Mysteries of the deep
Image: seer
Your Say:
"$17 per small wooden spinning top seems a bit steep - I reckon he's not living in the real world... oh yeah, he studies rubbish he find the beach."
Steve Cottrill, Gravesend
"$17 per small wooden spinning top seems a bit steep - I reckon he's not living in the real world... oh yeah, he studies rubbish he find the beach."
Steve Cottrill, Gravesend
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