Moby-Duck

{{short description|Book by Donovan Hohn on the Friendly Floatees}}

{{Other uses|Moby Duck (disambiguation){{!}}Moby Duck}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Moby-Duck

| image = Moby-Duck cover.jpg

| caption = Cover of US edition

| author = Donovan Hohn

| title_orig =

| translator =

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series =

| subject = Ocean currents; Marine debris; Plastic toys; Friendly Floatees

| genre = Non-fiction

| publisher = Viking

| pub_date = March 2011

| english_pub_date =

| media_type =

| pages = 478

| isbn = 978-0-670-02219-9

| oclc =

| dewey = 551.462

| congress = GC231.2.H65 2010

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

}}

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them is a book by Donovan Hohn concerning 28,800 plastic ducks and other toys, known as the Friendly Floatees, which were washed overboard from a container ship in the Pacific Ocean on 10 January 1992 and have subsequently been found on beaches around the world and used by oceanographers including Curtis Ebbesmeyer to trace ocean currents.{{cite news|last=Wilkinson|first=Carl|title=Ugly Ducklings|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/81ea32a4-5732-11e1-be25-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1n2AiRVJ0|accessdate=21 February 2012|newspaper=Financial Times|date=17 February 2012}}{{cite news|last=Maslin|first=Janet|title=Books of the Times: The Siren Song of the Bath Toy|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/books/21book.html|accessdate=21 February 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 February 2011}}

The book was published in the United States in March 2011 by Viking ({{ISBN|978-0670022199}}) and in the UK in February 2012 by Union Books ({{ISBN|978-1908526007}}) with a shorter subtitle: Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea. It was noted by The New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2011,{{cite news|title=100 Notable Books of 2011|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2011.html?pagewanted=all|accessdate=21 February 2012|newspaper=The New York Times: Sunday Book Review|date=21 November 2011}} shortlisted for the 2012 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism,{{cite web|title=Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism|url=http://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/awards/book-award-for-journalism|work=New York Public Library|accessdate=14 May 2012}} runner-up of the 2012 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award{{cite web |url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/167728715.html |title=PEN literary awards announced |work=StarTribune |author=Laurie Hertzel |date=August 28, 2012 |accessdate=October 24, 2012}} and runner-up of the 2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award.{{cite web |url=http://www.pen.org/literature/2013-penjohn-kenneth-galbraith-award |title=2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award |date=August 14, 2013 |accessdate=August 15, 2013}}

The title is a reference to Herman Melville's classic seafaring novel Moby-Dick.

File:Moby-Duck UK cover.jpg