Pioneering oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer unravels the mystery of marine currents, uncovers the astonishing story of flotsam, and changes the world's view of trash, the ocean, and our global environment. Curtis Ebbesmeyer is no ordinary scientist. He's been a consulting oceanographer for multinational firms and a lead scientist on international research expeditions, but he's never held a conventional academic appointment. He seized the world's imagination as no other scientist could when he and his worldwide network of beachcomber volunteers traced the ocean's currents using thousands of sneakers and plastic bath toys spilled from storm-tossed freighters. Now, for the first time, Ebbesmeyer tells the story of his lifelong struggle to solve the sea's mysteries while sharing his most surprising discoveries. He recounts how flotsam has changed the course of history—leading Viking mariners to safe harbors, Columbus to the New World, and Japan to open up to the West—and how it may even have made the origin of life possible. He chases icebergs and floating islands; investigates ocean mysteries from ghost ships to a spate of washed-up severed feet on Canadian beaches; and explores the enormous floating "garbage patches" and waste-heaped "junk beaches" that collect the flotsam and jetsam of industrial society. Finally, Ebbesmeyer reveals the rhythmic and harmonic order in the vast oceanic currents called gyres—"the heartbeat of the world "—and the threats that global warming and disintegrating plastic waste pose to the seas . . . and to us.

柯蒂斯•埃貝斯邁爾

美國海洋學傢，華盛頓大學海洋學博士，目前定居在西雅圖。他是第一位研究海洋漂浮物的海洋學傢，登上過美國《人物》雜誌。被戲稱為“漂浮物偵探”。他創辦瞭“海灘拾荒情報網”，集結世界各地的海灘拾荒愛好者，運用科學儀器、計算機模擬進行分析，一步步探索洋流和漂浮物的秘密。

埃裏剋·西格裏安諾

新聞工作者，采訪報導海洋與環境議題長達20多年，目前是《西雅圖都會雜誌》（Seattle Metropolitan）的新聞主筆。

譯者簡介：

蘇楓雅

墨爾本大學文學學士，曾任颱灣天下文化編輯及大小創意的智識編輯。