Curtis Ebbesmeyer
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
oceanographer who, in retirement, has studied the movement of flotsam
Flotsam and jetsam
In maritime law, flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict describe specific kinds of wreck.The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage....
. He came to public attention through his interest in The First Years' rubber duck
Rubber duck
A rubber duck is a toy shaped like a stylised Yellow-billed Duck , and is generally yellow with a flat base. It may be made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic...
s (actually Friendly Floatees
Friendly Floatees
Friendly Floatees are plastic bath toys marketed by The First Years, Inc. and made famous by the work of Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who models ocean currents on the basis of flotsam movements including those of a consignment of Friendly Floatees washed into the Pacific Ocean in...
) a consignment of bath toys washed into the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
in 1992.
Life and career
Ebbesmeyer was born April 24, 1943 in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Educated at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, where he gained a PhD in oceanography in 1973, Ebbesmeyer monitored ocean currents by tracking buoys and markers dropped at sea. Stories vary as to the origin of Ebbesmeyer's use of flotsam as markers. In May 1990 80,000 Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
sneakers were released from a container washed off the ship Hansa Carrier
Hansa Carrier
The Hansa Carrier is a container ship. On 27 May 1990, en route from Korea to the United States, the ship encountered a storm which caused the loss of twenty-one 40-foot cargo containers south of the Alaska Peninsula, near...
. When Ebbesmeyer's mother heard about those shoes floating in the currents she said "Well isn't that what you do?". He says that from this he saw the opportunity to monitor ocean currents from the distribution of the shoes washing up on the coasts of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and Washington. However, in a 1999 article, Ebbesmeyer credits the discovery by Richard Strickland, a colleague at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
School of Oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
, of a Chinese message in a bottle, which Strickland opened in 1991 having found it in June the previous year. Ebbesmeyer and his team calculated that the bottle had been released on the other side of the Pacific in 1980.
He established links with beachcomber
Beachcombing
Beachcombing and beachcomber are words with multiple, but related, meanings that have evolved over time.A beachcomber is someone who "combs" the beach, and the intertidal zone in general, looking for things of value, interest or utility....
s and formed a network of people reporting the landfall of the contents of this and other spills. Using OSCURS (Ocean Surface Currents Simulation), a computer simulator developed by Seattle oceanographer Jim Ingraham, Ebbesmeyer tracked the oceanic movement of all kinds of flotsam including 34,000 ice hockey gloves washed off the Hyundai Seattle in 1994. Prior to this he had specialised in forecasting the movement of oil spills and sewage.
Ebbesmeyer founded the nonprofit Beachcombers' and Oceanographers' International Association in 1996 for which he writes and publishes the magazine Beachcombers' Alert.
In retirement, Ebbesmeyer has continued to work with Evans-Hamilton, Inc., a Seattle-based oceanography company offering in physical oceanography services, meteorological conditions studies, and application of marine and freshwater instrumentation.
Ebbesmeyer has worked with marine scientist Charles Moore, who, in 1999, published findings that the ratio of plastic to zooplankton
Zooplankton
Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...
(in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre) is about six to one, with consequent harm to ocean life from the very start of the food chain.
External links
- http://beachcombersalert.org/ Beachcombers' Alert website
- http://oceanmotion.org/html/research/ebbesmeyer.htm Ocean Motion: Profile for Curtis Ebbesmeyer