A Pacific Crossing?

Maeda Hiroshi of Taketomi, Okinawa Prefecture, completed a sailing voyage around the world in 2009. He says that if the camera went against the Kuroshio Current to arrive in Suao, “This miracle was achieved because the power of waves from a northeasterly winter seasonal wind combined with a reverse current.”

He also offered an alternative opinion on the camera, however, suggesting that the device traveled north on the Kuroshio Current, circled the Pacific, and returned to a more southerly section of the current before arriving in Taiwan. “Some research shows that among the sea turtles that come near to the Yaeyama Islands, there are some individuals that go north along the Kuroshio Current, move south along the west coast of North America, and then turn west when they reach the equator. They then arrive back at the Philippine seas where they were born.”

On the other hand, sea turtles choose where they wish to travel. There are records of them shunning beaches where they formerly laid eggs due to encroaching tourists. Tanizaki Shigeo, chairman of an Ishigakijima sea turtle research group, has been studying the animals since 1992. He drew attention to the lifeforms found on the camera housing. “From the pictures I’ve seen online, they all look like Lepas anserifera goose barnacles. If the camera had traveled across the northern Pacific, it would definitely have picked up some Mediterranean mussels or northern Balanomorpha.” According to Tanizaki, Lepas anserifera are distributed widely through the oceans, thereby providing no clue to the route of the camera. The absence of the other lifeforms, which prefer lower temperatures as found in the northern Pacific, suggest that the device did not travel through this area.

Study of the housing by specialists may give a clearer picture of where exactly the camera went. At the same time, fans of romanticism may prefer to imagine the extended ocean voyage suggested by the adventurer Maeda.

The camera removed from its housing. (Courtesy Park Lee of Yue Ming Elementary School)
(Originally published in Chinese on June 12, 2018. Banner photo: A digital camera lost in Okinawa in 2015, discovered with shells covering its housing, on a beach in Yilan County, Taiwan, on March 27, 2018. Courtesy Park Lee of Yue Ming Elementary School.)