What do Nike Shoes, Rubber Duckies and Hockey Gloves Have

in Common?

Nike Shoes • A ship named Hansa Carrier

was traveling from Korea to

the U.S. on May 27, 1990.

• On route, the ship

encountered a dangerous

storm in the North Pacific.

• A huge wave washed over the

ship and more than 80,000

shoes fell into the ocean.

• The following winter hundreds of shoes

ended up on the beaches of British

Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

• In the 1992 the shoes started to arrive in

Hawaii. Why did they get there and why

did it take an extra 10 months?

• A ship from Hong Kong

encountered a storm on

January 10, 1992 in the North

Pacific.

• 7,220 rubber duckies fell into

the ocean.

• Along with rubber frogs and

turtles for a total of 28,000

toys floating in the ocean.

Rubber Duckies

Hockey Gloves • On December 9, 1994 the ship Hyundai

Seattle had a major engine room fire in

the North Pacific.

• Two containers filled with hockey

equipment spilled into the ocean.

So What Do They Have in Common? • Where the Nike shoes, rubber duckies

and hockey equipment were found tell us

information about the movement of

ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean.

• We are able to learn the direction of the

currents by tracking the location where

ships lost their cargo and the location

where the materials drifted.

So What Does This Have to do with Ocean Currents?

• The amount of Nike shoes that fell in made them the

largest number of drifters in the ocean.

• Drifters are one of the tools used by

oceanographers to study the movement of ocean

currents.

• Computer simulations are often used but we need

to make sure the models are behaving as the ocean

does.

• Oceanographers compare model predictions to

drifter behavior.

• Oceanographer Carl Ebbesmeyer and Jim

Ingraham used the drifters to validate a

model known as Ocean Surface Currents

Simulator (OSCURS).

• OSCURS predicted the shoes would

make landfall at the northern tip of

Vancouver Island and the coast of British

Columbia about 249 days after the

accident.

• The first shoes report came at 220 days.

Only 1,600 shoes were found.

• The oceanographers used OSCURS to

predict when the rubber duckie toys

would wash up on shore.

• They predicted they would wash up in

May 1993, but they had already shown up

6 months early in November 1992.

• So why would the duckies move faster

than the shoes?

• The sneakers float low in the water and

most of the shoe in submerged.

• Tub toys float almost with their entire

surface above water.

• Which one would be pushed along by

winds faster?

• Oceanographers receive reports of toys,

shoes, and equipment coming to shore

each day.

Debris That is Currently Being Tracked

Material Date Location Number

Nike Shoes May 27, 1990 Pacific Ocean

Bathtub Toys January 10, 1992 Pacific Ocean

Hockey Gloves December 9, 1994 Pacific OCean 34,000

Fir Logs February 20, 1996 Bay of Alaska

1,100

Lego Pieces February 13, 1997 Atlantic Ocean 4,756,940

Nike Shoes December, 1999 Pacific OCean

Computer Monitors January, 2000 Pacific Ocean

Plastic Soap

Dispensers

March, 2001 Pacific Ocean

Nike Shoes 2002 Pacific Ocean 33,0000

How Currents Affect Us • For shipping and marine offshore industries

• Regional Climate

• Minimize time

• Avoid bad weather

• Save fuel

• Marine cables along the ocean floor

• Offshore oil production

• Track marine pollution

• Leisure activities (sailing)

• Fishing industries

• Marine ecosystems

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

• The Garbage Patch occupies a large and

stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean bound

by the North Pacific Gyre.

• The Gyre's rotational pattern draws in waste

material from across the Pacific from North

America to Japan.

• As material is captured in the currents, wind-

driven surface currents gradually move floating

debris toward the center, trapping it in the region.