Because they can't swim?

Sorry. :-D
Amy

Foods float because of the air trapped in the food itself. The fresher the food before processing the less air it contains. Proper handling before canning and during the process can also reduce floating. Hot packing has less problems than cold pack and if you can't hot pack keeping the food submerged in water or other liquids until jarred helps keep it from absorbing air.

From NCHFP:

Many fresh foods contain from 10 percent to more than 30 percent air. How long canned food retains high quality depends on how much air is removed from food before jars are sealed.

Raw-packing is the practice of filling jars tightly with freshly prepared, but unheated food. Such foods, especially fruit, will float in the jars. The entrapped air in and around the food may cause discoloration within 2 to 3 months of storage. Raw-packing is more suitable for vegetables processed in a pressure canner.

Hot-packing is the practice of heating freshly prepared food to boiling, simmering it 2 to 5 minutes, and promptly filling jars loosely with the boiled food. Whether food has been hot-packed or raw-packed, the juice, syrup, or water to be added to the foods should also be heated to boiling before adding it to the jars. This practice helps to remove air from food tissues, shrinks food, helps keep the food from floating in the jars, increases vacuum in sealed jars, and improves shelf life. Preshrinking food permits filling more food into each jar.

Hot-packing is the best way to remove air and is the preferred pack style for foods processed in a boiling-water canner. At first, the color of hot-packed foods may appear no better than that of raw-packed foods, but within a short storage period, both color and flavor of hot-packed foods will be superior.

Dave

Odd that our asparagus pickles floated, as they were brined for two hours prior to cold packing them. Seems like the air would go out with the water. Didn't want to pre-cook the asparagus for pickles.

Okay we bought a jar of pickles from the store and it will wasn't open but the pickles were floating to the top we just want to know or the pickles still fresh and good

Unless the lid seal on the jar, the vacuum seal is broken, then the pickles are fine. As explained above it is quite normal for pickles to float and as long as there is room in the jar for them to do it they will.

Dave