Ducks on the move
13/05/25 02:35
Those who enjoy reading my essays might be interested to know that I have a manuscript of essays, poems, and prayers that will be going out to its first round of readers soon. The collection has been accepted for publication and was originally slated for early 2026, but the publisher is interested in moving up to a date in 2025. When I began the project, I intended to publish a collection of the essays I have written in this journal, but as I started to pull the manuscript together, it became clear that I needed to write new essays for the project. I’ll have more details as things progress.
Part of the process for me has been to participate in several writers’ groups. I’ve been a part of a memoir writers’ group, an environmental writers’ group, and a poets’ group. Each group has put me in touch with other writers and offered opportunities to share some of my writing. It has been a challenging and fun process. One of the things that I learned from the environmental writers’ group is that many citizen science projects are helping scientists gather data on our planet, the effects of global warming, and other changes. One of the most well-known is operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers record bird observations in backyards, city streets, and remote locations. By making and recording practical observations, everyday citizens can aid scientists in assembling larger databases and gain a broader perspective than could be gathered by scientists working alone. Similar projects exist in various fields, including insect observations, weather reporting, fish and game counts, etc.
One citizen’s science project that captured my interest stems from an accident at sea. In 1992, a dozen shipping containers were washed overboard from the Evergreen ship Ever Laurel during a storm on the Pacific Ocean. One container was in transit from First Years, Inc. in Hong Kong, headed for Tacoma, WA, for import into the US. The container broke open and released 28,800 Friendly Floatees. There were yellow ducks, red beavers, blue turtles, and green frogs. Two oceanographers from Seattle who were working on an ocean surface current model heard about the toys floating in the ocean and decided they could yield information about ocean currents. The pair had previously tracked other spills of flotsam, including 61,000 Nike running shoes that had been lost overboard in 1990. They began tracking the floating toys’ landfall by asking citizens to report where and when each toy was found. First reports of them making landfall came from Alaska. Years later, some were found in pack ice above the Arctic Circle. A few reached the Atlantic Ocean and found their way to Greenland.
At least two children’s books have been inspired by the traveling Floatees. Their journeys even inspired a song, “Yellow Rubber Ducks” by Rich Eilbert. Of course, that song isn’t as famous as the 1970 Sesame Street song sung by Ernie, “Rubber Duckie.” If you want to learn more about the traveling Floatees and see one of the actual rubber ducks to which Ernie sang the song on television, the place to go is the Rubber Duck Museum in Point Roberts, Washington. The Museum has ducks dating back to 1911 and from across the globe. Rubber ducks were first chew toys made from hard rubber in the 1880s. Floating ducks first appeared in 1949.
If you want to visit it in Point Roberts, however, you’ll have to go there quickly. This summer, the museum is moving a short distance north and across the border to Canada. Point Roberts is a town of about 1,200 people at the end of a peninsula. The only way to drive to the town is to go through Canada. High school students from the town go into Canada and back into the US to get to school and make two more border crossings on the way home. Point Roberts residents depend on Canada for water, electricity, and other utilities. They are also dependent upon customers from Canada. Before the inauguration of the current US president, Point Roberts was bustling with Canadians who crossed the border for cheaper food and gas. But the shops, gas stations, and restaurants of Point Roberts are empty these days. Point Roberts is bracing for a loss of Canadian customers like our community, which is also dependent on Canadian tourists. Across the US, Canadian tourists spend over $20 billion each year in the U.S., even though the Canadian dollar has been falling against the U.S. dollar, making travel here more expensive for Canadians.
The reasons the Canadians are staying away are complex. The US President has questioned the validity of the border between the U.S. and Canada, referred to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor,” and persists in suggesting that Canada should become a state. He has imposed tariffs on goods entering the U.S. from Canada and threatened higher tariffs. Canadians see it as a threat to their sovereignty. From their perspective, it seems that the U.S. president wants the total collapse of their economy. They are responding by boycotting U.S. travel and goods.
To make matters worse, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement has made crossing the border at the two crossings in Blaine very difficult. They have reduced the number of entry lanes to only two or three, causing wait times to enter the U.S. to rise to 45 minutes to an hour or more. They impose exit inspections for days, backing up traffic to gridlock the town. Last week, there were waits of more than three hours to leave the U.S.
And it is even more complex. Entrance to the Rubber Duck Museum is free. Merchandise sales support the Museum, including ducks and other floating toys, T-shirts, mugs, stickers, and signs. Nearly all of the ducks sold at the Museum are made in China, like the floatees that fell off the container ship. The 145% tariffs on goods from China have forced the Museum to raise its prices. Although the tariffs are on-again-off-again, the unpredictable way tariffs are being imposed and retracted makes doing business on a small scale nearly impossible.
The ducks that fell off the container ship floated north. The ducks of the Rubber Duck Museum are also moving north, leaving the United States for a new home in Canada.
Part of the process for me has been to participate in several writers’ groups. I’ve been a part of a memoir writers’ group, an environmental writers’ group, and a poets’ group. Each group has put me in touch with other writers and offered opportunities to share some of my writing. It has been a challenging and fun process. One of the things that I learned from the environmental writers’ group is that many citizen science projects are helping scientists gather data on our planet, the effects of global warming, and other changes. One of the most well-known is operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers record bird observations in backyards, city streets, and remote locations. By making and recording practical observations, everyday citizens can aid scientists in assembling larger databases and gain a broader perspective than could be gathered by scientists working alone. Similar projects exist in various fields, including insect observations, weather reporting, fish and game counts, etc.
One citizen’s science project that captured my interest stems from an accident at sea. In 1992, a dozen shipping containers were washed overboard from the Evergreen ship Ever Laurel during a storm on the Pacific Ocean. One container was in transit from First Years, Inc. in Hong Kong, headed for Tacoma, WA, for import into the US. The container broke open and released 28,800 Friendly Floatees. There were yellow ducks, red beavers, blue turtles, and green frogs. Two oceanographers from Seattle who were working on an ocean surface current model heard about the toys floating in the ocean and decided they could yield information about ocean currents. The pair had previously tracked other spills of flotsam, including 61,000 Nike running shoes that had been lost overboard in 1990. They began tracking the floating toys’ landfall by asking citizens to report where and when each toy was found. First reports of them making landfall came from Alaska. Years later, some were found in pack ice above the Arctic Circle. A few reached the Atlantic Ocean and found their way to Greenland.
At least two children’s books have been inspired by the traveling Floatees. Their journeys even inspired a song, “Yellow Rubber Ducks” by Rich Eilbert. Of course, that song isn’t as famous as the 1970 Sesame Street song sung by Ernie, “Rubber Duckie.” If you want to learn more about the traveling Floatees and see one of the actual rubber ducks to which Ernie sang the song on television, the place to go is the Rubber Duck Museum in Point Roberts, Washington. The Museum has ducks dating back to 1911 and from across the globe. Rubber ducks were first chew toys made from hard rubber in the 1880s. Floating ducks first appeared in 1949.
If you want to visit it in Point Roberts, however, you’ll have to go there quickly. This summer, the museum is moving a short distance north and across the border to Canada. Point Roberts is a town of about 1,200 people at the end of a peninsula. The only way to drive to the town is to go through Canada. High school students from the town go into Canada and back into the US to get to school and make two more border crossings on the way home. Point Roberts residents depend on Canada for water, electricity, and other utilities. They are also dependent upon customers from Canada. Before the inauguration of the current US president, Point Roberts was bustling with Canadians who crossed the border for cheaper food and gas. But the shops, gas stations, and restaurants of Point Roberts are empty these days. Point Roberts is bracing for a loss of Canadian customers like our community, which is also dependent on Canadian tourists. Across the US, Canadian tourists spend over $20 billion each year in the U.S., even though the Canadian dollar has been falling against the U.S. dollar, making travel here more expensive for Canadians.
The reasons the Canadians are staying away are complex. The US President has questioned the validity of the border between the U.S. and Canada, referred to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor,” and persists in suggesting that Canada should become a state. He has imposed tariffs on goods entering the U.S. from Canada and threatened higher tariffs. Canadians see it as a threat to their sovereignty. From their perspective, it seems that the U.S. president wants the total collapse of their economy. They are responding by boycotting U.S. travel and goods.
To make matters worse, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement has made crossing the border at the two crossings in Blaine very difficult. They have reduced the number of entry lanes to only two or three, causing wait times to enter the U.S. to rise to 45 minutes to an hour or more. They impose exit inspections for days, backing up traffic to gridlock the town. Last week, there were waits of more than three hours to leave the U.S.
And it is even more complex. Entrance to the Rubber Duck Museum is free. Merchandise sales support the Museum, including ducks and other floating toys, T-shirts, mugs, stickers, and signs. Nearly all of the ducks sold at the Museum are made in China, like the floatees that fell off the container ship. The 145% tariffs on goods from China have forced the Museum to raise its prices. Although the tariffs are on-again-off-again, the unpredictable way tariffs are being imposed and retracted makes doing business on a small scale nearly impossible.
The ducks that fell off the container ship floated north. The ducks of the Rubber Duck Museum are also moving north, leaving the United States for a new home in Canada.
