Jeff and Marianne Pence are members of the Westport South Beach Historical Society, and “float wranglers,” who walk the south beaches looking for people who have found some of the hundreds of Japanese glass fishing floats the society releases from time to time to be discovered by lucky beachgoers.

Over the holiday weekend, “while walking our regular trek to the jetty and back, a couple of young men were walking toward us,” wrote Marianne Pence. “I noticed something shiny in the hand of one of the men. Sure enough, he had one of our floats.”

The couple relayed the story behind the beachgoers’ find.

“We gave him the whole story about (the historical society) purchasing a load of genuine Japanese hand-blown fishing floats, and that Jeff and I would go out in the evenings and ‘seed’ the beach,” she said. “Some we threw into the waves, some we tucked into piles of seaweed, and others we put behind driftwood all along the beach.”

The man with the float, Kenaro Urata, was originally from Japan, but has been living in Kirkland for the past 2o-plus years. When the couple asked if they could take his photo and submit it to The Daily World, “He was more than thrilled, to have found something that came from his own country,” said Marianne Pence.

“Needless to say, he’ll be coming back with more of his friends, hoping to more floats,” she said.