# Condom Reef & Other Oceanic Wonders **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2004, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321 "2004-08-11T04:55:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Certainly\_If\_You\_Please](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Certainly\_If\_You\_Please](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Certainly_If_You_Please)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/1 "2004-08-11T04:55:30Z")
Supposedly there is a floating “reef” of disposed condoms in the middle of the South Pacific, about halfway between Tahiti and Antarctica. The mass is “almost two miles long, an eighth of a mile wide, and in places up to 60 feet deep”. [Article](http://web.ukonline.co.uk/thursday.handleigh/unusual/other/condom-reef.htm) Pictures! I want pictures! Anyone heard of this or other wierd man-made oceanic wonders out there? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/2 "2004-08-11T10:29:42Z")
I’m voting for a hoax here. For one thing, the name “Mason Froule” only crops up on the net in this one story - a good sign of an urban legend. Trying to find the website of the “Oceanographic Laboratory Outpost” on Macquarie Island is equally fruitless. Hmm… MASON FROULE = FOOL SURNAME. Possibly. No hits in the archives of any UK newspapers from the period. In any case, the story dates back to at least 1996, so such a thing, if it ever existed, has probably broken up. Think about it - what mechanism would cause _just_ condoms to clump together in one area. Sure, you sometimes come across rafts of floating debris that accumulate thanks to currents, but I don’t see how the current could be, er, rubber-specific… ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/3 "2004-08-11T16:12:27Z")
Definitely just fun. > [@](#): > > reported at 63 degrees latitude and 154 degrees longitude Note they “forgot” such little things as north/south and east/west? And in any case it is unlikely that anything could actually be in any of the four possible spots. A look at an atlas shows 63 degrees to be either in Antarctica or up around the northern polar circle. Not terribly well done, as such jokes go. Really cool would have been giving the coordinates of the authors favorite bar or of a cathouse. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/4 "2004-08-11T16:23:47Z")
OK. I didn’t see the “South Pacific” part. That narrows it down. That ends up being about 300 and something miles north of the Antarctic coast. Encarta doesn’t show any islands around close. Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/5 "2004-08-11T16:49:40Z")
I don’t really see that you can object based on the location: 63ºS 154ºW does indeed locate a spot between Macquarie Island and the coast of Antarctica, right on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. I still call BS though… you’d think this would have gained more publicity if it were true - it’s only made a handful of web pages and a couple of Usenet postings. Maybe it’s one of those failed urban legends 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/6 "2004-08-11T16:55:30Z")
A moment’s thought on this would seem to be enough to dismiss it as nonsense. Why no floating island of banana peels? Why no floating island of Twinkie wrappers? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/7 "2004-08-11T17:47:42Z")
Based on an average of 30ft deep, thats over 209 MILLION cubic feet of condoms. I’d have a hard time believing that something like that would be on worldwide news. In fact it would probably be common knowledge by this point. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/8 "2004-08-11T18:52:10Z")
> [@Joey P](#): > > Based on an average of 30ft deep, thats over 209 MILLION cubic feet of condoms. I’d have a hard time believing that something like that would be on worldwide news. In fact it would probably be common knowledge by this point. Unless condoms have some sort of magnetic attraction to each other or an inherent homing instinct, the likelihood of this occurrence is less than zero. It’s rubbish, through and through. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condom-reef-other-oceanic-wonders/259321/9 "2004-08-11T19:01:45Z")
> [@Joey P](#): > > Based on an average of 30ft deep, thats over 209 MILLION cubic feet of condoms. I’d have a hard time believing that something like that would be on worldwide news. In fact it would probably be common knowledge by this point. Hmmm, that should be "I’d have a hard time believing that something like that **wouldn’t** on worldwide news.