What began as a spontaneous idea on the high seas developed into an extraordinary journey: After more than two and a half years, a message in a bottle from an AWI geoscientist has surfaced on the west coast of Tasmania, having drifted at least 15,000 kilometers around Antarctica.
Johann Klages took part in an expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute aboard the Polarstern from December 2022 to March 2023. On the return voyage toward Punta Arenas, he released a message in a bottle for his children, who had to spend Christmas without him—into the Drake Passage on 28 February 2023.
In August 2025, Australian Toby Ray found the bottle during an outing along the remote west coast of Tasmania. Despite the correct address, his reply letter was initially returned as undeliverable. Only after online research did contact via email come about in December 2025. Ray was greatly surprised to learn that the sender was a polar researcher.
The find is also scientifically interesting: The message in a bottle must have drifted clockwise around the continent with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The distance traveled suggests an average drift speed of about 19 centimeters per second. How the bottle ultimately reached land is now to be investigated using ocean current models.
Just in time for Christmas 2025, Toby Ray now hopes to be able to deliver a new letter to the Klages family in northern Germany.
Heiner Kubny, Polarjournal