Ocean Commotion: Caught in the Currents

By Rod Phillips

When a thunderous storm in 1992 threw a cargo container filled with bathtub toys overboard into the Pacific Ocean, no one expected the 29,000 plastic toys would help scientists prove that the ocean currents are connected. However, the toys are still popping up today on beaches near and far-some more than 17,000 miles away from the accident at sea. This story gives a fictionalized account of the happening, telling the tale of a flock of rubber ducks as they traveled the globe's waterways.

As the cargo ship sailed on that stormy night, the bathtub toys escaped their drowned container, popping up one by one on the ocean's surface. Left bobbing along the globe's waterways, the little quackers eventually came to rest on shores ranging from Alaska to Seattle to Fiji, Tonga, and Tahiti. Over the years, some of the toys journeyed through the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean, landing in the hands of many around the world, including reporters and a little boy named John. The plastic toys' tale is accompanied by maps charting their travel pattern, a glossary, and a summary of the highly publicized event.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589808622
• ISBN13: 9781589808621
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.8" x 11.2"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7