The elusive glass ball is one of the finer treasures to find on BC’s west coast. Of all the flotsam found on our beaches, they are the coveted prize. Even though there is nothing special about them – they’re just fishing gear – and in their time were cheap to make. What makes them special is the journey they’ve been through and the fact that against all odds, they’ve made it across an entire ocean intact.
Many countries have developed their own unique form of glass floats but the majority of floats found on the BC coast originate from Japan and make their way to us riding the Kuroshio current. Glass floats were used heavily for fishing in Japan during the mid 1900s. In 1948, four of the factories in Japan produced a total of 300,000 floats each month. During this period there were more people fishing for a living in Japan per capita than any other country in the world. Due to the technology of the time and the nature of the glass, fishermen were suffering a 50% loss of their gear per trip. The balls were in high demand.
With the balls being lost at such a high rate the odds of them reaching us were pretty high. In the 1960s to the 1980s, glass balls were still arriving in BC in high numbers. That was 30 years ago. Now plastic floats have flooded the market as a better choice for fishers and glass floats are no longer in production for the industry. For beachcombers this mens the odds of finding a glass ball are becoming increasingly rare. However, three years after the 2011 Japanese tsunami, a resurgence of glass balls started to show up on beaches along our coast. These were surmised to have been landlocked an then washed out to sea. Where they landed and for how long this will continue is anyone’s guess. The Kuroshio current for Black Tide does of always carry things in a direct path to us. Items can be slowed down by barnacles, caught in ocean gyres or circulate several times around the Pacific without teaching landfall. When we find glass balls, now they are not only unique because of the odds they’ve beaten but because they are getting old; some of them traceable to over 100 years.
Many glass balls come with trademark stamps imprinted by their manufacturers and are traceable to their place of origin. This along with size, colour and texture, gives collectors a way to gauge the value (most of it personal) of their beach-combed find. Typically glass floats coming from Japan are pale blue or green but the depth of colour varies. Some balls will have beautiful dark blue swirls embedded in the glass, some greens are pale and some are as dark as beer bottles. The rarest coloured balls to find are the pink/purple balls that were used exclusively by the emperor’s fishing fleet but they are out there.
Winter is the best time to search for glass balls. High winds backed by storm surges sweep around the ocean carrying debris from far away and throwing it onto the beaches during cold rainy gales. Conditions rearrange the shorelines and leave everything utterly exposed giving us a chance to actually see what’s out there before it all gets covered up by the shifting sands of summer. Keep you eye on the weather farther out in the ocean. It is almost the same science surfers use to predict big swell rolling in. If there is a big storm happening in the centre of the Pacific being followed by a wind blowing on shore, chances are good that these conditions will be carrying marine debris. There are always indicators on the tide line for good days to find glass balls. If you’re walking the each and you start to find other glass objects, florescent light tubes and light bulbs or glass bottles, particularly saki bottles, glass balls are often around too. Velella, or blue sailor jellyfish are also a typical omen.
The balls can be anywhere – glistening in the sun on a fresh tide line , tangled in a mass of floating kelp in a calm bay, among barnacle covered boulders, barely visible in a sand dune, or most commonly in the highest tide lines through the driftwood. Any debris lighter than wood is naturally trapped behind the logs when the water retreats. No two balls are alike and no two balls are ever in the exact same place. Combing the beaches on the west coast of Haida Gwaii, Vancouver Island and the east side of Hecate Strait are the best bet for uncovering a ball, but you never know what you might find on any of BC’s exposed beaches.