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88,000-mile journey? Plastic card makes landfall in Alaska after 33-year sea voyage May 11th 2012, 07:42 James Poulson / Daily Sitka Sentinel via AP Beachcomber Emmitt Andersen, 12, holds up a plastic card set adrift by NOAA in the 1970s that he found in Sitka, Alaska. By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com A plastic card dropped into the ocean 33 years ago has been found on the coast of Alaska, after a potential 88,000-mile journey. The drift card was one of thousands put into the Bering Sea by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration staff in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as part of a project to find out where oil would go if there was a spill. Follow @msnbc_world About the size of a postcard, it offered a reward of $1 for its return in three languages: English, Japanese and Russian. It was found on a beach at Sealion Cove, near Sitka, Alaska, last month by 12-year-old middle school student and keen beachcomber Emmitt Anderson. "We never know what we're going to find ... I just like to find stuff. When I don't find stuff, I'm not very happy," Anderson told the Daily Sitka Sentinel newspaper. 'Amazingly good condition' His father Steve contacted NOAA and was put in touch with oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who tracks flotsam as it rides the world's currents. Ebbesmeyer told msnbc.com that Anderson's drift card had likely been caught in the Aleut gyre, circulating ocean currents that take three years to make an 8,000-mile orbit. "The question is how many times did it go around? I think it's likely it went around once, it could have gone round 11 times. It’s possible it went 88,000 miles. It could have short-circuited the gyre … we'll never quite know," he said. Courtesy Curt Ebbesmeyer This plastic card may have traveled 88,000 mile, according to oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer. "Everything in the ocean, particularly plastic, can travel great, great distances," he added. Follow Ian Johnston Ebbesmeyer said the drift card was in "amazingly good condition." "After 33 years in the ocean, [it] is in quite readable condition," he said. "Plastic doesn't degrade very fast." Much of the plastic that finds its way into the sea will travel the world for years to come. "Half of all plastic cannot sink because of its specific gravity. It's as if it was in prison in Flatland [a fictional two-dimensional world]," Ebbesmeyer said. Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold While Anderson's drift card did not make landing very far from where it was released, others have ended up in Europe. "Across the North Pole, down past Greenland, down to almost New York City, over to the vicinity of London, then turn south to France. That's probably the longest certifiable drift," Ebbesmeyer said. Even if the Sitka drift card traveled 88,000 miles that may not be the longest ever journey by a piece of plastic in the sea. Dec. 29: NBC's Kerry Sanders reports on a huge mass of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean that is killing marine life and growing larger each day. An albatross found on Midway Island in the Pacific in 2004 was found to have 512 pieces of plastic in its stomach. One piece was discovered to have come from a downed aircraft from World War II. It was likely caught in the 12,000-mile turtle gyre, which takes about six years to make its full circle. Ebbesmeyer said that if that piece of plastic made 10 orbits in 60 years, that would mean it traveled 120,000 miles, equivalent to about five times round the Earth. Plastic ducks, frogs He also tracks some 28,800 plastic bath toys called Floatees – turtles, ducks, beavers and frogs – that were lost overboard from a container ship in the mid-Pacific in 1992.  Hundreds drifted some 2,200 miles and beached -- like Emmett Anderson's drift card -- near Sitka, Alaska. To date, a duck was seen in Maine in July 2003, while a green plastic frog was spotted in Scotland in August 2003. Ebbesmeyer, who usually gets one or two reports a year about the floating toys, said some of them may be approaching an epic achievement: Circumnavigating the globe. "It's possible they have gone something like in the order of round the world," he said. More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News: In debt or jobless, many Italians choose suicide Reporting on the hidden horror of Britain's sex gangs Video: Would-be al-Qaida bomber was double agent Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold US charity's gift to UK troops: $2 million for 'sanctuary' $868K mystery: Nigeria stock exchange's yacht, Rolexes vanish UK jails 9 members of sex gang who 'shared' teen girls Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world   Media files: 120510-driftcardclose-2a.photoblog400.jpg (image/jpeg) 120510-driftcardkid-2a.photoblog400.jpg (image/jpeg) getMobileVideo?videoId=22431379 Suspected kidnapper Adam Mayes dead, 2 girls found unharmed May 11th 2012, 00:46   By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services Updated at 3:25 a.m. ET: As a SWAT team closed in, a fugitive accused of killing a Tennessee mother and daughter before disappearing for nearly two weeks with her two other children killed himself Thursday evening, allowing authorities to safely recover the kidnapped girls, police said. Adam Mayes, 35, shot himself in the head after authorities, acting on a tip, found him and the girls near New Albany, Miss., Guntown Police Chief Michael Hall said. After getting the tip, authorities spotted one of the missing girls — 12-year-old Alexandria Bain — in a densely wooded area behind a church several miles west of Mayes' home, said Aaron T. Ford, special-agent-in-charge of the FBI's Memphis, Tenn., office. Law enforcement agents repeatedly ordered Mayes to come out with his hands up, Ford said at a news conference early Friday. But Mayes refused to raise his hands, pulled a pistol from his waistband and shot himself. Ford said authorities then moved in and recovered Alexandria and her sister, Kyliyah Bain, 8. The girls appeared to have been in the woods for two or three days and were suffering from exposure, dehydration and poison ivy, Ford said. 'I gave them a big hug' They were taken by authorities to a hospital to be examined, according to WMCTV.com. When reporters asked a law enforcement official whether Alexandria and Kyliyah had said anything, he replied, "We just tried to love them and feed them." The two girls were hungry but had a jug of water with them, Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards said. "I told them it's going to be OK. I gave them a big hug ... When I seen these kids, it was a huge relief," Edwards told Reuters. Mississippi Department of Public Jo Ann Bain and her daughters, Adrienne, 14, Kyliyah 8, and Alexandria,12. Bain and her daughters disappeared on April 27. The bodies of Jo Ann Bain and Adrienne Bain were found last week behind the mobile home in northern Mississippi Mayes was pronounced dead at a hospital, Daniel McMullen, FBI special agent in charge of Mississippi, said at a news conference. He had a 9mm gunshot wound that passed from his right temple through the other side of his head, Union County Deputy Coroner Rob Anderson told Reuters. Mayes was charged Tuesday with the first-degree murders of Jo Ann Bain, 31, and her eldest daughter, Adrienne Bain, 14, whose bodies were found in a shallow grave outside Mayes' mother's home last week. Mayes' mother told police she had seen him digging there, according to an affidavit filed Wednesday. Mayes was, by his own admission, the last person to see Jo Ann Bain and her three daughters. Eager to find the two younger girls, the FBI rushed Mayes to the Top 10 Most Wanted list on Wednesday, hoping the exposure would help to locate them. By Thursday evening, a red banner with the word "Deceased" was posted across his mugshot. FBI adds fugitive in Tennessee killing, kidnap case to 10 most wanted list Police believe that Mayes, who was at the Bain home the evening before they disappeared, kidnapped the Bains from their Whiteville, Tenn., home on April 27. Gary Bain, the father, reported his family missing. Authorities charged Mayes and his wife, Teresa Mayes, on Wednesday with first-degree murder in their deaths. Mayes' mother, Mary France Mayes, was charged earlier with conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping. Read the affidavit for Adam Mayes A police affidavit obtained by WMC states that Teresa watched her husband kill Jo Ann Bain in a garage adjacent to the Bains' home in Whiteville, Tenn.. She told police that Mayes also killed Adrienne Bain at the home, the affidavit says. Police say she admitted to driving a vehicle with the bodies inside it to Alpine, Miss. FBI most wanted list In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Josie Tate, Mayes' mother-in-law, said her son believed the two younger girls were his daughters. That belief caused problems in his marriage to Teresa Mayes, her daughter, who is jailed. Relative says man suspected of kidnapping Tennessee girls thinks they are his "She was tired of him doting on those two little girls that he claimed were his," Tate told the AP. A friend of Mayes told Fox News that Mayes had had a heart attack and wore a heart monitor. He would need a heart transplant within a year, the friend said. The friend told WMC that Mayes was obsessed with the two young Bain girls, believing them to be his daughters. He wanted to custody of them, the friend said. Authorities refused to comment on the motive for the April 27 slayings and abductions. "Thank God it's over and the babies are safe," said Teresa Mayes' sister, Bobbi Booth. "That's all that mattered. I'm just glad it turned out the way it did." Dee Hart, who organized a Tuesday night vigil for the girls in Bolivar, Tenn., said their prayers were answered. "No words can express our elation," she said by phone. "We know prayers brought those babies home. I can't wait to see them."  The Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report. More content from msnbc.com and NBC News: Obama who? Gay marriage foes seek to extend gains US priests reportedly behind crackdown on nuns Video: Rep. Frank 'pleased' with Obama on gay marriage Cyclist spots stolen bike on Craigslist, steals it back Feds sue Sheriff Joe, alleging racial profiling Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook           Media files: 120510-mayes-636p.photoblog400.jpg (image/jpeg) 120510-meyers-741p.photoblog400.jpg (image/jpeg)

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