Japanese Glass Float

We were delighted to find one of these glass floats on the beach. There are times when people in town have gone down to the beach and found hundreds of them at a time. Nelson Lagoon is one of the only places in the world where they can be found. Between 1910-1940, the Japanese deep sea fishing industry used these to float their nets. They were handmade by glassblowing (which is why this one has that "button" of melted glass where it is sealed), and based on the color of ours, it was made from a recycled sake bottle. These glass floats (in addition to 28,800 floating bath toys and 30,500 pair of Nikes--all of which spilled into the ocean accidentally when shipping containers filled with them were lost overboard at sea) are part of an oceanographic study started in the 90's which uses them to track ocean surface currents, information sometimes used to predict likely locations of people lost at sea. What we're getting at here, is that, in collecting this glass float, we have basically been a part of saving a life. No big deal.