More than 20 years ago, a freak wave caused 62 containers of Lego to fall off a cargo ship and be lost at sea. This year, the first ever Lego shark lost at sea has been discovered among the debris. The Lost at Sea project was founded by Tracey Williams to document the discovery of pieces of Lego in south-west England, the Channel Islands, Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway.
Williams said the Lego inventory showed 22,200 dark grey Lego sharks and 29,600 light grey ones were among the lost containers. These sharks are highly sought after by collectors and finding them is rare because they sink to the bottom of the ocean. Large plastic items including life rafts are more likely to be found by fisherman and women, door frames, windows, and life rafts.
Richard West, a fisherman from Plymouth, found the shark on the top of his fishing nets and immediately recognised it as a Lego toy. “It’s priceless – it’s treasure!” he said. In August this year, West discovered the plastic toy 20 miles south of Penzance.
The principal objective of the project is to raise awareness of the plastic problem in the ocean and how it has made its way there. It looks at what sinks, what floats, how long it lasts and how far it can drift on the surface of the ocean or along the seabed.
Ms Williams said the reason why so few plastic sharks have been found is because they sank to the bottom of the ocean and remain there. Even so, this year a yellow spear gun was found among 53,120 that were lost. Fishing nets also brought in scuba tanks, flippers, cutlasses, life jackets and door frames.
In order to document how the plastic moves to every part of the ocean, the project is attempting to record as many found Lego pieces as possible on their project’s map. They are calling on individuals who have found these pieces from the lost cargo, to reach out to them in order to include the pieces on their map. The Lego Lost at Sea project received the Rescue Project of The Year award in the Current Archeology Awards 2023
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