A postcard place in a bottle and discombobulate into the North Sea more than a century ago has been found and take back to the scientific introduction creditworthy for its statistical distribution . Rather than a erotic love letter oran SOS to the man , it is part of one of the longest running scientific experimentation in the human race .
From 1904 - 1906 George Parker Bidder of theMarine Biological Association of the U.K.(MBA ) placed 1020 mailing-card come up to to the psychiatric hospital in bottle and had them released into the North Sea . The card provide a reward of a shilling to anyone who found one and post it back with information .
Marianne Winkler find the nursing bottle in April on a beach onAmrum , an island off Germany ’s North Sea coast . Winkler state local websiteAmrun News , “ It ’s always a joy find a message - in - a - bottleful on the beach . Where does it come from , who write it and how long has it been travelling with the air current , wave and flow ? ”
In this case the card was undated , so while Winkler could tell it was old , she had no thought she had no idea her bottle had been at sea so long that it is likely to break the currentcurrent recordof 99 year ( the MBA are waiting for this to be corroborate ) .
As instructed by the note of hand inside , Winkler and her married man smashed the bottle and mailed the card back to the MBA . Its communication music director Guy Baker toldthe Telegraph“It was quite a stir when we open that envelope . ”
Although the MBAannounced the feeding bottle ’s discoveryin May , the account stayed submerged for a while , much like the bottleful itself . Suddenly the finding was mark last calendar week , leading to put off ofmedia attention .
One of Bidder ’s bottles , similar to the one the Winklers find . deferred payment : MBA archive .
Bidder was particularly interested in studying deep sea currents , rather than the better understood movement at the surface . His body of work represented a forerunner of theArgo floatsthat have metamorphose our knowledge of the deep ocean . Bidder created what he called “ bottom nursing bottle ” which were weight down to float two feet ( 60 centimeters ) above the sea bottom .
Rather than being washed ashore , 55 % of these bottom bottles were caught in fishing net and return . Those bottles that did come to land , however , usually finish up in England , while surface bottles were more likely to be sweep in the other direction . The migration of the Winkler ’s nursing bottle can only be imagined , but it has ended up in a similar position to many light bottles let go in a similar spot .
Bidder found that the bottles moved in the opposite direction to the migration of flatfish , support the opinion that bottom feeders swim against the flow . He also used the proportion of bottles return to test the intensity of fishing and the dangers of overharvesting .
True to its word , the MBA get off the Winklers an old English shilling .
