“21-Year-Old Message In a Bottle Drifts 1,735 Miles” is the title of the article that caught my attention as I was searching through FOXNews.com. Merle Brandell, a man from a small village in Alaska, was engaging in his hobby of beachcombing along the sea when he came across a plastic bottle that happened to have a message inside. The message read, “This letter is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands, please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung." (1). Brandell proceeded to call the school district but couldn’t reach anyone, so he wrote a letter. Craig Degginger, the district spokesman, received the letter and did some detective work to find Emily Hwaung.
“After some searching, Degginger discovered Emily Hwaung is now a 30- year-old accountant named Emily Shih who lives in Seattle. She was in the 4th grade during the 1986-87 school year (when the bottle was placed in the ocean for a class project) at a school building that closed more than a year ago.” (1). Shih has been interviewed and she says the experience has been fun to talk about with friends and family and that it is definitely a once in a lifetime happening. She also remarks on how things have changed in 21 years- nowadays, teachers wouldn’t let students pollute the ocean with plastic or offer to send a picture of themselves to a complete stranger. Brandell and Shih each have theories on how the bottle ended up 1,735 miles away from its original home and how it was still readable, but both have enjoyed being involved in this and will tell this story for years to come.
Citation:
"21-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Drifts 1,735 Miles." FOXNews. (23 March 2008) 24 March 2008. [http://www.foxnews.com]. Path: Home; U.S.
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