Ducks, ducks everywhere and not a....

There are times when my mind turns to the wonder that is the rubber duck.

I didn’t know about this particular ducky tale until a friend pointed it out to me. I’ve seen a couple of rubber ducks washed up in the tangle of Hell’s Mouth in North Wales over the years but have never stopped to examine them closely. I've often wondered where they may have come from and this could be the answer.

Anyway, here’s the story of the ocean-going rubber ducks and their incredible journey.

They may only have been toys - only meant to bob up and down the bath - but an armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago and went on to float halfway around the world. Since then they have traveled 17,000 miles, floated over the site where the Titanic sank, landed in Hawaii, even spent a few years frozen in an Arctic ice pack. Some made it to Britain and were initially spotted on beaches in South-West England. Even been found as far north as the Hebrides.

While the ducks would have been a loss to our bath-time fun, their high sea adventures have proved to be invaluable to science as scientists tracked the floating plastic ducks around the world’s oceans charting the changing currents and learning how they affect climate change.

It’s believed that over 2,000 of them are still caught in the currents of the North Pacific Gyre, a vast stretch of water between Japan and southeast Alaska. This spinning churn of seawater catches anything that comes into it in a whirlpool for years and years, maybe even forever. Imagine thousands of rubber ducks churning around and around in a whirlpool of water for over 20 years. Just think of it, thousands of rubber duckies floating on the ocean. Journeying and washing up on the shores of Hawaii, Alaska, South America, Australia and the Pacific Northwest. What an adventure and how wonderful to find one of these rubber ducks.

These days they have largely faded to white and have the words “The First Year” stamped upon them. Next time I’m on Hell’s Mouth I’ll keep my eyes peeled.