Curtis Charles Ebbesmeyer (born April 24, 1943) is an American

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...

based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. In retirement, he has studied the movement of

flotsam In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...

to track ocean currents. He gained public attention by his reporting of studies of the movement and distribution of a consignment of rubber bath toys, which were washed from a ship into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in 1992, and continued to be collected from Northwest beaches for more than twelve years. He has established a network among beachcombers to track and report such materials, and in 1996 founded the nonprofit ''Beachcombers' and Oceanographers' International Association''. He also writes and publishes its magazine ''Beachcombers' Alert''.

Life and career

Ebbesmeyer was born April 24, 1943 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Educated at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

––where he earned a Ph.D. 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 some 80,000

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

sneakers were released from a container washed off the ship ''

Hansa Carrier ''Hansa Carrier'' was 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 21 Intermodal container, 40-foot cargo containers south of the Alaska Peninsula, near . Five of ...

''. According to one account, when Ebbesmeyer's mother heard about those shoes floating in the currents, she said: "Well isn't that what you do?" He has said that he saw the opportunity to monitor ocean currents from the distribution of the shoes washing up on the coasts of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. However, in a 1999 article, Ebbesmeyer credits inspiration for his work to the discovery by Richard Strickland, a colleague at the

School of

Oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

, of a Chinese message in a bottle. Strickland had opened it 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. Ebbesmeyer established links with

beachcomber A beachcomber is a person who practices beachcombing. Beachcomber or Beachcombers may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''The Beachcomber'' (1915 film), an American drama * ''The Beachcomber'' (1938 film), starring Charles Laughton and a ...

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 specialized in forecasting the movement of oil spills and sewage. Ebbesmeyer founded the nonprofit ''Beachcombers' and Oceanographers' International Association'' in 1996. He writes and publishes its magazine ''Beachcombers' Alert''. In retirement, Ebbesmeyer has continued to work with Evans-Hamilton, Inc., a Seattle-based oceanography company. It offers consulting 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 are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

(in the

North Pacific Subtropical Gyre The North Pacific Gyre (NPG) or North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG), located in the northern Pacific Ocean, is one of the five major oceanic gyres. This gyre covers most of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is the largest ecosystem on Earth, locat ...

) is about six to one. This produces harm to ocean life from the very start of the food chain.

Bibliography

*Okubo, Akira, Ebbesmeyer, Curtis C., Helseth, Jonathan M. 1976. "Determination of Lagrangian deformations from analysis of current followers". ''Journal of Physical Oceanography'', 6, 524-527. *McWilliams, J.C., Brown, E.D., Bryden, H.L., Ebbesmeyer, C.C., Elliot, B.A., Heinmiller, R.H., Lien Hua, B., Leaman, K.D., Lindstrom, E.J., Luyten, J.R., McDowell, SE., Owens, W.Brechner, Perkins, H., Price, J.F., Regier, L, Riser, S.C., Rossby, H.T., Sanford, T.B., Shen, C.Y., Taft, B.A., Van Leer, J.C., 1983. The local dynamics of eddies in the Western North Atlantic. pp 92–113 in Eddies in ''Marine Science''. Allan R. Robinson, Editor. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg. *Okubo, Akira, Ebbesmeyer, C.C., Sanderson, B.G., 1983. Lagrangian diffusion equation and its application to oceanic dispersion. ''Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan'', 39, 259-266. *Riser, S.C., Owens, W.B., Rossby, H.T., Ebbesmeyer, C.C., 1986. The structure, dynamics, and origin of a small-scale lens of water in the western North Atlantic thermocline. ''Journal of Physical Oceanography'', 16(3), 572-590. *Ebbesmyer, C. C., R. J. Stewart, and S. Albertson. 1998. Circulation in Southern Puget Sound's Finger Inlets: Hammersley, Totten, Budd, Eld, and Case Inlets. ''Proceedings of Puget Sound Research 1998 Conference, March 12–13, 1998'', p. 239-258. Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team, Olympia, WA. *Ebbesmeyer, C. C., C. A. Coomes, G. A. Cannon, and D. E. Bretschneider. 1989. Linkage of ocean and fjord dynamics at decadal period. In: D. H. Peterson d.Climate Variability on the eastern Pacific and western North America, ''Geophys. Monogr.'' 55, Am. Geophys. Union, pp. 399–417. *Ebbesmeyer, C. C., D. R. Cayan, D. R. Milan, F. H. Nichols, D. H. Peterson and K. T. Redmond. 1991. 1976 step in the Pacific climate: forty environmental changes between 1968-1975 and 1977-1984. ''Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Climate (PACLIM) Workshop'', April 1990 (California Department of Water Resources, 1991). *Ebbesmeyer, C., and R. Strickland. 1995. Oyster condition and climate: Evidence from Willapa Bay. NOAA Sea Grant Program Grant, grant #NA36RG0071. 11pp. *

References

Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer and Eric Scigliano. ''Flotsametrics: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science''. 2009
(Seattle, Washington: 2005). Retrieved 3 August 2006.

Retrieved 3 August 2006. * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070312023904/http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2001/july/beachcombing.php Kevin Krajick, 'Message in a Bottle', ''Smithsonian Magazine'', July 2001 Retrieved 3 August 2006.
Jane Standley, 'Ducks' odyssey nears end', ''BBC News'', 12 July 2003
Retrieved 3 August 2006.

Retrieved 3 August 2006.

External links

http://beachcombersalert.org/
''Beachcombers' Alert'' website

''Ocean Motion: Profile for Curtis Ebbesmeyer''
''DC art exhibit makes shoes from trash in nod to the 'Great Shoe Spill of 1990''
May 14, 2021 PBS Newshour in which Ebbesmeyer discusses his work and "flotsam tongue." {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebbesmeyer, Curtis 1943 births American non-fiction environmental writers Living people American oceanographers University of Washington College of the Environment alumni