Posted on 07/14/2007 6:33:43 AM PDT by Daffynition
THE first of 29,000 rubber ducks circling the oceans may have landed in Britain.
Retired teacher Penny Harris, 60, found this toy while walking her dog on a North Devon beach.
She hopes it will be identified as one of the ducks which have gone on a 17,000-mile odyssey since falling off a container ship during a Pacific storm in 1992.
Penny said last night: “It’s covered in brown algae and has got barnacles on it.”
The yellow ducks, which began life in a Chinese factory, have created global interest.
Two children’s books have been written about them and scientists have monitored their progress to help chart ocean currents. They have started to turn white and some have landed in Indonesia, Australia and South America.
Experts had expected them in Britain at any time.
The toys, being shipped from Hong Kong to Washington, US, have become collectors’ items, selling on eBay for £1,000.
The genuine items have the manufacturers’ words The First Years stamped on them.
These are NOT visible on the one Penny found between Woolacombe and Putsborough.
But she said: “There is a hole in it so they could have been on the missing bit.”
Penny hopes the ducks’ makers will confirm her find.
They have landed!
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