Around the world in 4,000 days for duck flotilla thought lost at sea.

(From Agence France Presse)

The last survivors of an armada of thousands of plastic ducks and other toy animals lost at sea 11 years ago are expected soon to reach British shores, and give occeanographers a valuable lesson in the way the planet works.

The epic journey of 29,000 toy ducks, turtles, beavers and frogs began when their container fell from a cargo ship somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in January 1992.

But the animals were not entirely lost at sea.

Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been using a powerful computer programme in the northwestern US city of Seattle to model the action of the elements on the ducks.

According to Ebbesmeyer and his computer, the toy animals are now due to be washed up on Britain's beaches, having completed an epic journey up the western US coast and through the ice floes of the Arctic into the Atlantic Ocean.

Soon after their plunge into the oceans, six ducks were found in the US state of Alaska, next to Canada's northwestern corner. But of the thousands that continued their journey, many were not so lucky.