Texas Couple Finds NOAA's 50-Year-Old Message in a Bottle

A Texas couple found a 50-year-old message in a bottle that was sent adrift in the Gulf of Mexico by scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries.

Candy Duke and her husband, Jim, were strolling along the sea at Padre Island National Seashore near their home in Corpus Christi, Texas, last month when they stumbled upon the bottle washed up among some tree limbs, according to an NOAA press release.

The bottle was one of 7,863 bottles released between February 1962 to December 1963 by researchers at the Galveston Laboratory of the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (NOAA Fisheries).

(MORE: Now in 24 States, 'Zombie Deer' Disease Could Spread to Humans, Expert Warns)

The researchers were studying the the role of water currents in the movement of young shrimp from spawning grounds offshore to inshore nursery grounds.

The couple filmed a Facebook live video, documenting their attempt to retrieving the note inside without breaking the bottle.

“I keep thinking because it has a number on it maybe we’ve won some grand prize to some place, maybe a cruise, I don’t know,” Candy said in the video.

“We don’t want to break the bottle that’s why we’re trying so hard to get this cork out. We collect bottles from the beach and we have them going down Jim’s fence in the backyard … This is harder than I thought,” she added.