Results: One Less Mystery To Solve
Published on 04/08/2019
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1.
1.
For more than 30 years, pieces of Garfield telephones kept washing ashore on the beaches of northwestern France, and no one quite knew why. Garfield phones were manufactured by Tyco in the early 1980s, several years after Jim Davis created the famously lazy cat into his hit comic strip. The phone parts were in remarkable condition, given that they had washed ashore from the ocean. In 2018 alone, at least 200 pieces of Garfield had been found on the beaches. And just last month, the mystery was finally solved. The phones were in a shipping container that sunk, and somehow wedged itself into a seaside cave, completely submerged, allowing the full shipment of toy phones to float into the ocean for all those years. I remember a few years ago, while walking on a beach in Mexico, we came across a prosthetic arm, which made us wonder what the back story was. Have you ever discovered something on a beach that made you wonder how it got there?
Yes I did
16%
361 votes
No, nothing out of the ordinary
46%
1054 votes
Yes, but even though it was unusual, there was a logical explanation
5%
108 votes
Never found anything on a beach
23%
524 votes
Have not been on a beach
10%
239 votes
2.
2.
In France, the Garfield phones are a symbol of a much broader issue of plastic pollution; it has been estimated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year. Particularly disconcerting is the fact that the phone parts seem to be largely intact 30 years after they first started to appear, demonstrating how persistent plastic pollution can be in the environment. Marine animals eat plastic debris and become entangled in it. And even when plastic objects degrade, they don't fully disappear; instead, they break down into tiny "microplastics" that get consumed by marine life and make their way up the food chain to humans, the health risks of which are still unclear. Have you ever participated in any type of environmental clean-up?
Yes
21%
485 votes
No
66%
1508 votes
I plan to
7%
157 votes
Why would I do this?
6%
136 votes
3.
3.
As strange as the Garfield phones washing up on the beach is (and this mystery has been solved), there are far more unusual things that have been found washed up on beaches. Have you heard about any of these strange things being washed up on beaches?
Lego -- A container filled with millions of Lego pieces fell into the sea off Cornwall, UK in 1997, and they are still washing up on Cornish beaches to this very day. The container, which was being shipped from Tokyo, Japan, was hit by a wave, that tilted the ship 60 degrees one way, and 40 degrees back, causing the container to completely spill over.
7%
163 votes
Dinosaur femur -- Part of an 80-million-year-old fossil thighbone found embedded in marine rock in Washington's San Juan islands provided the first evidence that dinosaurs once roamed the state. Paleontologists discovered the femur while looking for fossilized signs of other extinct animals, and the rock was so hard that it took an entire day to pry the fossil out.
6%
138 votes
Massive ice balls -- Hefty ice spheres as big as basketballs and weighing as much as 50 pounds (22 kilograms) clustered along the northeastern coast of Lake Michigan in 2013. Ice balls like these begin as bits of slush and ice crystals, shaped by the rolling motion of waves close to shore. They are commonly glimpsed in the area during the winter months, but they rarely grow this large.
6%
137 votes
Robotic hand -- A robotic hand was discovered in 2018 on a beach near Great Kills Park Beach, New York, although where it came from remains unknown.
2%
43 votes
Harley Davidson -- A rusty Harley Davidson motorbike washed up on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, which was believed to have been swept into the Pacific Ocean by the Japanese tsunami in 2012. The motorbike is believed to originate from Miyagi, Northern Japan, before being swept into the ocean making its way to Canada.
6%
142 votes
Giant eye ball -- This giant eyeball ended up being washed onto the sore of Pompano Beach and was estimated to be the size of a standard softball. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was immediately contacted and retrieved the massive eyeball for a thorough examination. Many believe the eyeball is from a squid, giant fish or whale, however, genetic testing is required in order to determine exactly what species it came from.
2%
47 votes
World War II Love letters -- Countless beaches across Europe have stumbled upon love letters from soldiers in WWII. Many of the letters were destined for the United States, and other European countries, as a means to reach out to loved ones.
9%
205 votes
Rubber ducks -- A container carrying a massive 28,000 rubber ducks was lost at sea over 25 years ago, however, its contents are still washing ashore around the globe today. The shipment first left Hong Kong, in 1992, and has since been found on beaches in countless countries from Canada, United Statues, Ecuador, Colombia, England, and France.
12%
265 votes
Heard about all of these
3%
64 votes
None of these
69%
1564 votes
4.
4.
Have you ever thrown a message in a bottle into the ocean or found a message in a bottle?
No
77%
1753 votes
I have thrown a message in a bottle into the ocean
7%
152 votes
I have found a message in a bottle
3%
75 votes
I know the Police song "Message In A Bottle"
11%
250 votes
I've seen the 1999 film "Message In A Bottle" starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn
7%
167 votes
I've read the Nicholas Sparks' book "Message In A Bottle"
7%
160 votes
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