In fact, during storms and shipwrecks, shipping containers regularly go overboard. In fact, while these lost shipping containers likely represent hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the shipping industry, they have inadvertently been a boon to another community: oceanographers. Together, they calculated the probable routes of the drifting shoes, which, though unintentionally released, were fed into the ocean system as data. By comparing their simulations with the real-world journeys of goods that washed ashore and were identified by serial number, oceanographers have helped produce increasingly precise maps of Pacific Ocean currents. If plastic objects spilled from shipping containers can help us understand the workings of the ocean, then nature and culture are no longer separate realms.