A bear hunting guide beachcombing near his tiny Alaskan fishing village on the Bering Sea found a plastic bottle among Japanese glass floats protruding from the sand. Inside the plastic bottle was an envelope.
After slicing the bottle open, Merle Brandell found a message from an elementary school student in a suburb of Seattle. The fact the letter traveled 1,735 miles was the beginning of the mystery. The answer was a Seattle elementary school's science project 21 years ago.
That's when fourth-grader Emily Hwaung put a typewritten message in a soda bottle.
"This letter is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands," she wrote. "Please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung."
She also was a little chagrined by the offer to mail a photo to whomever found the letter and by the environmental implications of dropping plastic bottles in the ocean, and noted that times have changed a lot in 21 years.
Brandell, 34, who also is the manager of a local water plant, said many of the 70-plus residents of Nelson Lagoon were intrigued by his find. Beachcombing is a popular activity in remote western Alaska. Among the recent discoveries was a sail boat that washed onto shore last October.
"It's kind of a sport. It keeps us occupied. It's one of the pleasures of living here," Brandell said of the village reachable only by plane or boat that is too small to have its own store.
Source:Xinhua
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