In 1992, 28,800 plastic ducks fell from a cargo ship: years later, scientists are still tracking them across the oceans

The plastic duck incident is one of the most fascinating and useful accidental events for oceanographic science. In January 1992, a cargo ship traveling from Hong Kong to the United States l ost several containers in the Pacific Ocean , releasing around 29,000 plastic bath toys (known as ‘Friendly Floatees’) that ended up revolutionizing our understanding of ocean currents.

Although they are popularly known as ‘the plastic ducks’ , the cargo actually included yellow ducks, red beavers, green frogs, and blue turtles. Since they had no holes to collect water (as they were designed as sealed floating toys), these plastic animals turned out to be perfect tracking tools for oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and James Ingraham .

Many drifted north, passed through the Bering Strait, and became trapped in the Arctic ice. They moved at a rate of only a few kilometers per day, frozen in the ice blocks. Years later, after the ice surrounding them melted, they reached the North Atlantic. Eventually, sightings of these toys were recorded on the coasts of Alaska, Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and eastern Canada.

Science was able to determine with precision how long it took the water to complete a full circuit of the Pacific Ocean gyres

This massive spill helped scientists design and feed real-world data into ocean current simulation models (such as the OSCURS system). Thanks to the ducks, science was able to understand with unprecedented precision how long it took water to make a full circuit of the Pacific Ocean gyres and how microplastics and marine debris move around the planet.

Nowadays, although most of the toys have already degraded or broken down into microplastics due to solar radiation and wave action, the study of their dispersal is still used as the perfect example of how the interconnection of all the Earth's oceans works .