Message in the Bottle

Harold Hackett, of Prince Edward Island Canada has been sending messages in bottles since 1995! He estimates that by 2011 he had sent nearly 5,000 bottles with messages, hurling each one into the wind from the shore near his home. He has gotten thousands of replies, which he says was a whole lot more than he expected!

By asking the finder to reply in a letter, he is getting tons of well wishes from every side of the Atlantic (and then some! ). He gets Christmas cards, post cards, souvenirs, and sometimes people will share their own stories with him. It's a little bit romantic, I think, to put yourself out there like that, having no idea what type of response you might get. The Guardian News dubbed Harold's hobby as "A different kind of social networking". I'd say it's a little old fashioned nostagic romance - but not something we don't all ponder from time to times.

In the news and interviews covered so far, I have not seen any mention of romance for Harold, but you never know! Let's keep watching the story to see how it unfolds! (or, unrolls.... that is)

Photo by Mykl Roventine

How can his bottles go in so many directions?

People in France, Germany, the United States, and even Africa and Iceland have responded to Harold's bottles. He sends them from the same place, near his home in Newfoundland, at different times, but always with a westerly wind. He knows bottles thrown with the wind blowing in the wrong direction will just come right back home. But how do they reach so far away?

The great Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs through the Atlantic Ocean. The range runs underwater from Iceland down to 58ºS latitude. This range is what separates the Atlantic Ocean into two main basins. The Atlantic Ocean itself is 82 million square kilometers, and if you add the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, Black, Baltic, North, Norwegian-Greenland, and Caribbean Seas, Baffin and Hudson Bay, it covers nearly one fifth of the Earth's surface!

The particular area that Harold throws his bottles from, Prince Edward Island, is prone to particularly high tides. This is partially due to Canada's higher rate of preciptiation, but is also affected by several other factors. The Labrador current is prominent in the area, and will generally send Harold's bottles in two directions. The colder currents will take the bottles into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the rest joining with the Nova Scotia Current. The Nova Scotia current will pass through the Gulf of Maine and eventually join up with the coastal current.

But what about the ones that flow north and east?

Could it be that they get caught up in the super fast Gulf Stream after making it all the way down to the coastal current, then follow it back to the European side? That would be fascinating to find out! Maybe we could convince Harold to start putting tracking devices in his bottles!

Apparently the winds around the area are mystical indeed! In fact there is even a book of poetry about that very subject!

BAFFLES OF WIND AND TIDE: An Anthology of Newfoundland Poetry, Prose and Drama

Police, and Sting made the concept popular!

I am not a scientist or a geologist, but from what I've read about the ocean currents in the area, perhaps this is a route the bottles might take. It seems to include all of the places where they have been found.

The blue teardrop is where Harold throws his bottles from. Each Yellow circle is a place where one has been found, and the red line shows my best guess at a route.

While Harold's story is charming, he is pretty lucky that so many of his bottles are found! Most of the trash that gets thrown into the ocean stays there forever, unless someone picks it up. This, sadly is not happening enough, and our oceans are being polluted more every year.

There is plenty you can do to help! First of all, try to only use biodegradable plastic, if you use it at all. Secondly, use your own grocery bags. (Not Paper or Plastic), and thirdly, you can help by keeping the ocean in mind before you throw anything down on the beach or in the water. Here are some organizations working on this problem. Some have local resources where you can get involved.

Ocean Conservancy

Surfrider Foundation

Ocean & Coastal Resource Management

Kirkus Reviews

"Capt. Moore, a lifelong seafarer, was spurred to activism when his catamaran stalled in a remote area of the northeast Pacific and he noticed a visible proliferation of plastic bits and other trash floating on the water's surface."