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You'll Need a Big Bathtub for this
105ft Rubber Duck!
11th July 2007
You stand on the pier looking out over the Loire, enjoying the
riverside view.
Suddenly a giant yellow monstrosity drifts
into view, bobbing gently on the current. Is this some kind of horrible
nightmare, or perhaps a scene from an avant garde film?
No, it’s art! Created by Dutch artist
Florentijn Hofman as part of the “Loire
Estuary 2007” contemporary-art exhibition, the enormous “Rubber Duck” is
“soft, friendly and suitable for all ages” according to its maker.
While that may be so, at 105 feet
tall and 85 feet wide the rubber-coated PVC “Duck” will be pretty hard to fit in
your bathtub.
Launched at the beginning of July, “Rubber
Duck” can be seen floating within the area of the outdoor art exhibition through
September 1, 2007.
Mother Duck Prepares for Ducklings'
Return
21st August 2007
A 2.5-metre tall plastic duck is currently on her way to the English coast of
Cornwall. She's looking for her ducklings who are expected to make landfall on
the southwest coast of England after a voyage over the great oceans.
In 1992, during a storm on the
Pacific Ocean, 29,000 plastic bathtime toys ducks fell over board from a
container ship that had left China bound for America. Via the coast of Alaska
they reached the Bering Strait in 1995 and, after having withstood the rigours
of the Arctic ice, ducks have been observed in the last few years on the eastern
American seaboard. Thanks to the little ducks adventurous journey scientists
have been able to gather important data about the ocean currents. (Full story
here)
The little yellow bath toys are
shortly expected to make landfall in Cornwall and other beaches on the southwest
coast of England.
What a lot of Marshals
Photo Courtesy Of:
Tony Crescibene
Way back in the day, January of 1992 to be exact, a freighter in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean accidentally spilled it’s precious cargo into the sea. What
cargo was that? 29,000 rubber duckies.
Once oceanographers
realized the runaway ducks were caught in the
Subpolar Gyre, or ocean current as we would call it, they decided to use
them to learn more about how currents flow and how far and fast the effects of
ocean pollution travel. Since then, the ducks have been spotted all over the
world and as of 2003 have completely circumnavigated the globe. The ducks have
even earned a degree of fame with their journey being turned into a children’s
novel by
Eric Carle; author the The Hungry Caterpillar.
If you’re
interested in the details of the ducks’ journey, or would like to know the best
place to keep an eye to the sea for a wayward duck, Stirling got his
information from
Rubaduck.com | 
