Japanese school students sent a message in a bottle. 37 years later, it washed up in Hawaii

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by thebelsnickle1991

(CNN) — glass bottle containing a message from 1984 has washed up in Hawaii and been discovered by a 9-year-old girl -- 37 years after high school students in Japan dropped it into the ocean as part of an experiment.

The message in a bottle , titled "Ocean current investigation," was written by the students and placed in the Kuroshio Current near Miyajima Island, western Japan, as part of a school project into ocean currents.

The letter sealed inside, dated July 1984, asked whoever found the bottle to return it to the school, Choshi High School.

was on a family visit to a beach near the city of Hilo, Hawaii, when she discovered it. It had traveled some 4,350 miles. The bottle's finder, named in local media in Hawaii as 9-year-old Abbie Graham,was on a family visit to a beach near the city of Hilo, Hawaii, when she discovered it. It had traveled some 4,350 miles.

The school said in a press statement that it released 450 bottles in 1984 and a further 300 in 1985 as part of its ocean currents survey.

So far, 51 have been found and returned. However, the school added, this is the only bottle to have been found since 2002.

Related content A 50-year pen pal friendship that began with a message in a bottle

Other bottles from the experiment washed up in Washington state in the US, Canada, the Philippines, and the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific.

Mayumi Kanda, a former student of the school, who was a member of the science club in 1984, said she was surprised the bottle had reappeared after so long. She said hearing the news had "revived the nostalgic memory of my high school days."

Choshi High School said its pupils planned to write to Abbie to thank her for returning it.

seastatefive on September 18th, 2021 at 14:22 UTC »

OK the most incredible thing I learned from this is... 1984 was 37 years ago? Hell no way!

585AM on September 18th, 2021 at 14:04 UTC »

When I was a kid, I found a message in a bottle on a South Carolina beach that came from Cuba. Lots of great moments in my life, but for whatever reason, this will always be one of the top ones. There was just something unreal and magical about it, even though it was just a scientific study.

GOPJay on September 18th, 2021 at 13:40 UTC »

And that, kids, is why we invented email.