Photos by Jim and Candy Duke used with permission
When Jim and Candy Duke spent their Saturday on January 19th, 2019 on their usual weekly stroll along Padre Island National Seashore close to their home in Texas, they expected to enjoy a the day's sunrise and beachcomb for gifted treasures from the sea. When they found a bottle containing a message near Marker 22, that read "BREAK BOTTLE" from the outside, they were pleasantly surprised. They posted a video on Facebook in which they labored to take out the note without breaking open the bottle so they could save it along with their other well-earned treasures! I recommend watching their video, as I found it pretty fun to see; another local news video coverage also brought in some fun visuals of their other finds (links at bottom).
In the video, they joked whether the contents of the message would include a free meal coupon or a money prize. It did offer a money prize for a mailed response--a whopping fifty cents--but what Mr. and Mrs. Duke wouldn't know until a little later was that they'd get national news coverage and be part of a multitude of publications for their discovery!
Jim holding the bottle up for a photo record
The inside of the note contained an explanation and a request for a mailed response. As it turned out, the bottle was part of a scientific study in by scientists of the Galveston Laboratory, part of the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. The U.S. BCF is now known as NOAA, America's very own and highly successful National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The research study, which started in the early 1960s, was made to investigate how water currents move shrimp from offshore spawning (populous mating) grounds to inshore nurseries where they give birth to their young. The study released 7,863 bottles into the northwestern Gulf of Mexico from February 1962 to December 1963, all with the same instructions for the lucky finders to document the date and their location whenever a bottle came into their hands.
Candy filled the card and sent it. The card actually fell into the hands of John, an NOAA employee in Galveston! Honoring the reply reward that was offered by the initial study group, John offered to send a check for 50 cents. Candy told him they didn't need to--she was satisfied to display the bottle and a photo of the card in their home instead! The NOAA later sent the Dukes their reports on the findings and posted an article about the Dukes' discovery on their website.
So the lesson to learn is that what may appear to be litter isn't always. Or even if it is, it can be a treasure that is better used out of the ocean rather than in it!
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Excerpt at the time of this article's posting, thanks to Candy Duke's generosity by getting in touch:
Jim and Candy Duke still take beachcombing strolls near their home almost weekly, finding value and use in various items that wash ashore! They've used an amazing variety of washed-up items such as rope, nets, hard hats, mannequins, duck decoys, and bottles to decorate their two next-door houses. Some of their items such as nets, ropes, and buoys are even bought by a shop in Rockport, TX that then sells the items to others as part of its business. They commit to weekly cleanups of their beach and fill up their truck bed every time, even if it's all trash and no treasures, simply because they love their beach and want it available for guests, wildlife, and themselves.
Candy encouraged me to take a look at their photos of other fun discoveries, some of which I've shared below.
On December 13th, 2020, Candy found another letter-containing bottle on Padre Island National Seashore. It turned out the bottle and letter inside were sent out to sea by a 5th grade girl from Florida on July 26, four and a half months before it came to the Dukes in Texas!
They don't just discover objects at the beach, however--there's some cool wildlife to be found there, too, like this Northern Gannet seabird! Those, of course, are left at the beach.
Along with their wildlife encounters they occasionally come across scientific research efforts, such as with the blacktip shark and the sea turtle below which are often measured and tagged before release!
They learned from the turtle officials that these Kemps Ridley turtle eggs (image of one below) must be harvested and moved before 6 hours, or else risk hardening, which would potentially prevent the baby sea turtles inside from hatching.
Coyotes like this one can prey on sea turtle eggs. This one wasn't said to find any on the day this photo was taken, though!
Resources:
Jim and Candy Duke, with Candy's generous contact and permission to pull from their beachcombing photos
Video coverage
The NOAA article on their amazing find
Another article
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