1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 2 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: there's Chuck Ahoy maydie. This is short stuff. It's a 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: fun story. Yeah. Have you you've heard of this before? Right? 4 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:16,440 Speaker 1: I have? And I mean it's about as fun as 5 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:20,760 Speaker 1: an ecological disaster can get. I guess, well said, well said, 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: And we are talking about an ecological disaster UM, and 7 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: it's one that happens kind of frequently, which is UM 8 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: the loss of a shipping container at sea. There's this 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: UM insurance company, a marine cargo insurance company called t RG, 10 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: and they estimate that every year anywhere from to ten 11 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: thousand shipping containers you know, those big giant shipping containers 12 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: that double is like an entire semi truck. Up to 13 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,160 Speaker 1: ten thousand of those just fall overboard into the sea 14 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: every year. Did they get those out? No? No, they're 15 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: going it's ten thousand, up to ten thousand these are 16 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:03,360 Speaker 1: falling in every year. Like that's a problem at some point, right, 17 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:06,919 Speaker 1: I guess not. I think we shipped that much stuff 18 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:09,200 Speaker 1: that they're like, well, these people are gonna have to 19 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,200 Speaker 1: wait a month and we'll get them some more. No, 20 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,559 Speaker 1: I mean a problem for the ocean. Ohh, I thought 21 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: she meant a problem for the consumer. I mean over 22 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,960 Speaker 1: ten years, Like it's up to a hundred thousand semitruck 23 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 1: shipping containers, ten thousand lying on the ocean, ten thousand. 24 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,199 Speaker 1: What did I say, No, that's it over ten years though, 25 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: Oh sure, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm sure 26 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:35,959 Speaker 1: it is a problem. Or um, it's a They always 27 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:42,040 Speaker 1: say that, um, A problem is a benefit in disguise, 28 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:45,880 Speaker 1: isn't that that saying? So they probably make lemonade out 29 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: of lemons down there. That's there's a window open. They 30 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: didn't know about all those metaphors. So you do make 31 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: a good point this this shipping effects nature. I mean, 32 00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: we talked about in a noise pollution episode just how 33 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: bad the shipping industry is for marine ecosystems. That's right, 34 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: But we're here to talk about one specific container that 35 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: had the cutest little ecological spill in history. The Ever 36 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: Laurel was at sea. There was a bad storms Januar. 37 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: It made it to port, but it lost a container 38 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: along the way, and that container contained twenty eight thousand 39 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: rubber duckies, frogs, beavers, and turtles called friendly floaties, and 40 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: the doors opened and they were all released into the ocean, 41 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:38,320 Speaker 1: and that amazing. So these friendly float ees um there. 42 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: There was some point moments after this, this disaster happened 43 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: where all twenty eight thousand, almost twenty nine thousand friendly floaties, 44 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 1: rubber duckies, rubber turtles, we're all just floating together in 45 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: this one very local area of the sea. No human 46 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: as far as we know, saw this. So you can 47 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:02,359 Speaker 1: just say, you have to imagine it in your mind's eye, 48 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: but it's easy to do, and it's it's delightful in 49 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: a way. It is delightful. But then they started to disperse, 50 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,799 Speaker 1: of course, because they're in the ocean, and of the 51 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:15,640 Speaker 1: twenty eight thousand nineteen thousand went south and started showing 52 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: up in places like Australia and Indonesia. UM. Some others 53 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: went across the Southern Pacific and west to South America, 54 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 1: and the rest headed north. And it's cute, but it 55 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,640 Speaker 1: is an environmental disaster. Somebody wrote a book called Moby Duck, 56 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: which is even cuter. But another guy named Dr Curtis 57 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 1: Ebbsmire said, you know what, I'm gonna make some limit 58 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: out of this because I study ocean currents, and all 59 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,080 Speaker 1: of a sudden I have twenty eight thousand little specimens 60 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: floating around, and I can see if I'm right about 61 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: what I think the currents due down there. Yeah, because 62 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: those oceanographers usually use like booie transmitters, and those things 63 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: are expensive and difficult to distribute and put out to see. 64 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 1: Now they had twenty eight thousand of these things that 65 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: they could basically use his stand ins for those booties, 66 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: as long as you could kind of keep track of them. 67 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: But Absmire went the other route. He's like, no, I'm 68 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: gonna make predictions based on my models, and then we'll 69 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: see if these things turn up where the models predict. 70 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:20,560 Speaker 1: And starting in nine six he predicted that, um, the 71 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: first friendly floaties would start showing up in Washington State. 72 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,080 Speaker 1: I think he was a you dub professor, UM, so 73 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: he talked about Washington specifically, and he was correct. They 74 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 1: started showing up in nine and that definitely caught the 75 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: attention of the media from that point on. I wonder 76 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 1: if when it happened he was like, oh man, I've 77 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: been wanting to release thirty rubber duckies for years now, 78 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: and they just won't let me do it because it's 79 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: not safe. Uh. I would guess he had those fantasies 80 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 1: in his darkest moments. So let's take a break and 81 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,720 Speaker 1: think about that, and uh, come back and talk more 82 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: about this. The Q just ecological disaster of all time. 83 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 1: So they found the first ones of these in sit 84 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: Alaska at the end of and then I think, you know, 85 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: it took months and years for things, these things to 86 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: kind of wash all over the world. And this was 87 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:41,039 Speaker 1: this was that guy's big chance, what's his name, Dr 88 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,640 Speaker 1: Curtis Ebbsmire, ebbs Meier's chance to see if his predictions 89 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:48,480 Speaker 1: are right. You're right, and he was right. Remember he 90 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: started predicting him that they would show up in Washington. 91 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:52,600 Speaker 1: He's right about the first one. I didn't see how 92 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:54,280 Speaker 1: right he was about the rest. He was right about 93 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: the rest almost exactly. Like one of the great triumphs 94 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: of the Friendly Floaty Saga is that um Dr Curtis 95 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:06,240 Speaker 1: ebbsmires um models, where like these things are dead on 96 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: it actually advanced oceanography as far as I can tell. 97 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,360 Speaker 1: So a lot of them ended up, like you said, 98 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: all over the world, but the ones that really kind 99 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: of gripped everybody the most were the ones that ended 100 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,320 Speaker 1: up in the North Atlantic up near Scandinavia and then 101 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 1: eventually down to the UK. And the reason that these 102 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: are so gripping is because they think that those are 103 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,720 Speaker 1: the ones that moved northward from this um wreck site 104 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 1: and they went up past Alaska where the first ones 105 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,160 Speaker 1: are found, up into the Arctic, where they became frozen 106 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: and ice, and because of the the conveyor belt by 107 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:48,000 Speaker 1: ocean currents even up that far north, the ice eventually 108 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: moved its way eastward. And then as the ice got 109 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: into warmer and warmer waters, that started to melt, which 110 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: freed those friendly floaties, which means that they made their 111 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:01,960 Speaker 1: own kind of reverse northwest passage through the Arctic, which 112 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: people have been trying to do for hundreds of years. 113 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:06,400 Speaker 1: Now they're friendly float He's figured out, you just have 114 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: to get trapped in ice for ten years. Yeah, Like 115 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 1: they should not probably have gone north to come south 116 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:16,880 Speaker 1: into Europe normally. Like, there's no way you predicted that, right, 117 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: I believe he did, really, Yes, he predicted that they 118 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: would start showing up in um in the UK about 119 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: ten years after the disaster, and they did, And I 120 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 1: think it was because he had predicted they would go 121 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:33,800 Speaker 1: north and it would take that long to make it across. Well, 122 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:35,880 Speaker 1: another good thing about this whole thing was that it 123 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:39,559 Speaker 1: did bring some more attention to the Great Pacific garbage Patch, 124 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: something we talked about in the very early days of 125 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: stuff you should know. Uh that may not have even 126 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: been me. It was, of course the North Pacific subtropical gyre. 127 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:54,760 Speaker 1: Uh and we talked about that garbage patch a few times, 128 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 1: I think, but uh, some of them obviously made their 129 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: way there and just became a part of that disaster. 130 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: And uh So anytime a little bit of media attention 131 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: is going to come that that way, that's a good thing. Yeah. 132 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,640 Speaker 1: Between that guy Donovan Hones book Moby Duck and Curtis 133 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: ebbsmires uh press that he got from his models and predictions, 134 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: I feel like that might have been what introduced the 135 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,360 Speaker 1: average person or the media to the Great Pacific garbage paths. 136 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:26,680 Speaker 1: I think this may have been what did it actually, 137 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: because it really alerted people to just how long plastic 138 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,640 Speaker 1: lasts in the ocean. Because those ones that entered the 139 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:35,600 Speaker 1: Great Pacific Garbage Patch, they're never going to make land. 140 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,760 Speaker 1: They're gonna stay stuck in that circular current and then 141 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,319 Speaker 1: over time they're just gonna break down. Further and further 142 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: into smaller and smaller plastic. It doesn't biodegrade at photodegrades, 143 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 1: so chemically speaking, it keeps. It never breaks apart. It 144 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,199 Speaker 1: just gets smaller and smaller, and then it enters the 145 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:54,920 Speaker 1: food chain and once it's in there, it sticks around 146 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:57,920 Speaker 1: for a really long time, like hundreds and hundreds of years, 147 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:02,720 Speaker 1: which that's where that ecologic Old disaster a part came from. Right, 148 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: I think that these things were supposed to he I think, 149 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: he said, besides those that are out there forever. He said, 150 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: I think the last ones will probably wash up somewhere 151 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,719 Speaker 1: in the UK. And you looked into his crystal ball 152 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: and said maybe two thousand seven, And there was one 153 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:23,040 Speaker 1: found in Cornwall in two thousand seven, so he's right 154 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: about that. And they've become kind of hot tickets on eBay, right, yeah, 155 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: I think at least a grand is the most that's 156 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: been paid for one that's definitely a first Year's Friendly 157 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: floaty that was in that shipping container. What do you 158 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:39,560 Speaker 1: do with that thing though, that you paid a thousand 159 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 1: dollars for? You hope somebody comes over and notices it 160 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 1: on the shelf and just conversation starter. I guess I gets. 161 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:50,000 Speaker 1: I don't know why else you would want to possess it, 162 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,400 Speaker 1: And there there's like a whole group of beach combers. 163 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: It's like a really big deal that I think that 164 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:57,800 Speaker 1: that would be a prize. But I think being a 165 00:09:57,840 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: beach comer, you'd want to find it yourself rather than 166 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,719 Speaker 1: buying it on eBay. Who knows. Yeah, I don't know. 167 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:05,959 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna look anyone's yung. No, definitely not. If 168 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,280 Speaker 1: you need that to get a good conversation going in 169 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,440 Speaker 1: your life and more pepper to you. You got anything else? 170 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:14,480 Speaker 1: I got nothing else? Okay, Well that's it for short 171 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: stuff everybody. And that's it for friendly floaties because they've 172 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:20,600 Speaker 1: all made land or photodegraded into almost nothing by now. 173 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:27,679 Speaker 1: And since I said that short stuff is out. Stuff 174 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:29,720 Speaker 1: you should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. 175 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,360 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 176 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:36,480 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.