Atlantic rubber duck onslaught coming

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TORONTO, July 14 (UPI) -- A Seattle-based oceanographer is sending out a plea to Atlantic Canadians to watch out for rubber ducks.

For more than a decade, Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been tracking the movement of 29,000 bath toys since a 1992 storm knocked them overboard from a container ship en route from China to Seattle. The retired scientist believes the rubber ducks, beavers, turtles and frogs are washing up on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia and is urging anyone who finds one to contact him.

"People pass them by because they think it's just another toy some child left on the beach, little realizing the story that could be there," he told the National Post.

Ebbesmeyer first took an interest in them when they began appearing on the shores of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska.

Ebbesmeyer is asking anyone who finds a toy to contact him via his Web site, beachcombers.org.