In 2008 Joe Johnsonan avid American traveler, launched a bottle of wine from a beach near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a message inside. Sixteen years later, this same bottle was found by a local on Peterborough beachin Australia, and beyond 13,000 kilometers away.
Covered in shells, the bottle attracted the attention of the man, who never imagined he would find himself faced with such a fascinating story. Inside, a message written in English told of Johnson’s intentions: test ocean currents and create a connection with whoever found the bottle. The message read:
Congratulations! Your curiosity has rewarded you. Thank you for recovering this bottle and taking the time to find out what was inside. I have released bottles like this in several locations around the oceans, hoping that people like you would find them and return them to me in the United States. I threw this bottle into the Atlantic Ocean on November 30, 2008, about 80 miles east of Salvador, Brazil. I would be happy if you would reply to me so I will know how far and how long this bottle has travelled. To make your participation more interesting, I will send you $20 (twenty dollars) upon receipt of this message. Be sure to include your name and address. Thanks again for participating in my experiment, I hope to receive details on how you found this message.
Joe Johnson, later interviewed by ABC Radio Melbournehe said:
My wife and I have taken many cruises. I don’t remember this specific bottle, but it’s amazing to know that it ended up in Australia.
But who thinks about the health of the oceans?
The discovery has sparked great interest among both local residents and online, with many onlookers excited about the possibility that Johnson can keep the promise made in the message and send the 20 dollars. In short, a simple gesture like throwing a bottle into the ocean can turn into an adventure that crosses continents, involving people from all over the world.
However we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that Johnson he threw more bottles during his travels. His experiment to observe how ocean currents could transport an object through time and space, while curious, is harmful to the environment.
The waste that ends up in the sea, or worse still thrown away, represents a concrete threat to ecosystems. Materials such as glass, plastic and metal, if dispersed in the environment, do not degrade easily and can persist for decades or even centuries as we saw in this case with the discovery which occurred 16 years later.
Glass bottles like this may seem harmless, but they add to the millions of tons of waste that end up in the oceans every year. This pollution not only harms marine wildlife – suffocated or trapped by debris – but also threatens human health through contamination of the food chain. The sea is a shared heritage that should not be exploited to satisfy our thirst for curiosity because it contains within itself the future of our planet.
