By Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer Using flotsam to study ocean currents
Beachcombers, scientists and reporters ask if flotsam
contributes to the understanding of ocean surface currents.
Amongst beached debris — plastic bottles, fishing nets, tires,
sea-beans, volcanic pumice, sneakers, gloves, toys, light
sticks, rope, beer cans, logs, medical waste, lighters,
cigarette butts — lie drifters telling from whence they floated.
To messages in bottles (MIBs), add traceable debris from
container spills, license tags from lobster pots, and flotsam
from myriad other sources. Much can be learned from this
accidental oceanography. Of the hundred million cargo containers
shipped overseas annually, several thousand fall overboard. Each
container may hold 10,000 sneakers. Until the incident in 1990
in which 80,000 Nike sneakers fell overboard in the mid-North
Pacific Ocean, I employed two instruments for learning where
surface currents transported drifters: 1) satellite-tracked
drifters which transmitted positions daily over interv