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How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science
Collins
April 2009
On Sale: March 24, 2009
304 pages
ISBN: 0061558419
EAN: 9780061558412
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Pioneering oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer unravels the
mystery of marine currents, uncovers the astonishing story
of flotsam, and changes the world's view of trash, the
ocean, and our global environment. Curtis Ebbesmeyer is no ordinary scientist. He's been a
consulting oceanographer for multinational firms and a lead
scientist on international research expeditions, but he's
never held a conventional academic appointment. He seized
the world's imagination as no other scientist could when he
and his worldwide network of beachcomber volunteers traced
the ocean's currents using thousands of sneakers and
plastic bath toys spilled from storm-tossed freighters. Now, for the first time, Ebbesmeyer tells the story of his
lifelong struggle to solve the sea's mysteries while
sharing his most surprising discoveries. He recounts how
flotsam has changed the course of history—leading Viking
mariners to safe harbors, Columbus to the New World, and
Japan to open up to the West—and how it may even have made
the origin of life possible. He chases icebergs and
floating islands; investigates ocean mysteries from ghost
ships to a spate of washed-up severed feet on Canadian
beaches; and explores the enormous floating "garbage
patches" and waste-heaped "junk beaches" that collect the
flotsam and jetsam of industrial society. Finally,
Ebbesmeyer reveals the rhythmic and harmonic order in the
vast oceanic currents called gyres—"the heartbeat of the
world "—and the threats that global warming and
disintegrating plastic waste pose to the seas . . . and to
us.
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