Rubber Duckies in the Ocean

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We’ve heard of kids in bathtubs playing with rubber ducks and even some imaginative adults might also like to bathe with them. However can you imagine an ocean full of rubber ducks? Well back in 1992 a large shipment of rubber ducks was making its way from China to the U.S. when the cargo ship dropped a container. Suddenly over 28,000 rubber ducks and other play-animals were bobbing in the North Pacific Ocean. So oceanographers started tracking these rubber duckies to see where they wound up. Some came ashore in Europe and others in Hawaii. What is really amazing is that the sightings of rubber ducks didn’t end until the mid-2000s. .If you have ever wondered how aquatic life could survive in the low temperatures at the poles. It is known that fish have antifreeze proteins which prevent ice crystals from growing. As a result their blood is not overcome by the chill and it can continue flowing. Most everyone assumes that the sounds they hear when they place seashells to their ears are the sounds of the sea or ocean. What is actually happening is that seashells act as resonators or cavities which let sound vibrate. When you place a seashell to your ear you hear the ambient sound around you amplified. As a result all of the whooshing air does sound like waves upon the water.