Divers Find An Old Camera Lying On The Ocean Floor, Then They Saw The Pictures
Losing something incredibly meaningful and important, like a camera or photo album, can feel devastating. Most of the time, there’s no other option than to move on. However, once in a blue moon, a long lost item makes its way home under the strangest of circumstances. This is one of those stories.
When conducting research, divers from a Canadian university discovered a long lost camera on the seafloor. From the looks of it, it had remained there for years, if not decades. While it was strange enough to find a camera on the bottom, the divers never thought it would work. But, believe it or not, it turned on! And they could not believe the photos they found…
1. A Diving Expedition
On the morning of May 13, 2014, a diving team from the Marine Ecology Department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, prepared to head out into some pretty deep waters. You see, the team wanted to conduct a research dive to study the waters off the coast of Bamfield, near Vancouver Island.
While the dive team had initially planned to simply take some notes on oceanic wildlife, their goals that day quickly changed. As the team loaded up the boat and headed out onto the deep blue sea, they had no idea what the ocean depths had in store for them…
2. The Team
Specifically, the team wanted to dive into the cold waters to study the many variations of sea stars that call the area home. By taking a large group out there, the divers hoped to shed light on their interesting behavior and numbers. Not only that, but some of the divers also planned to capture a few sea stars to study them back in the school labs.
However, once down on the seafloor, something embedded in the sea bed caught the eye of one diver. At first, he had no idea what the item could be. So, the diver and his partner swam closer, determined to figure it out. Upon closer inspection, the two students managed to determine precisely what the strange object was…
3. The Discovery
Beau Doherty, left, and Tella Osler, right, were the Simon Fraser University students who noticed something strange on the seafloor. While Doherty saw it first, the second he pointed it out, Olser agreed the square object did not belong. Determined to remove any trash from the beautiful ocean, the two swam over and tried to remove the object.
Closer, they noticed the object had hard edges and a leather strap that waved in the current. As Doherty pulled the belt, he felt surprised to see a round lense emerge from the sand. Despite the algae and literal sea life living on the object, the diver recognized it as a camera!
4. Who’s the Owner?
After Doherty discovered the rusty camera, he placed it in his dive bag and continued with his research. However, as he continued his diving expedition, the diver couldn’t help but wonder who the old camera had belonged to. More importantly, how had this camera ended up on the seafloor, so deep in the water and so far away from the shore. Also, how long had it been there?
“One of [the divers] picked it up and put it in his pocket and kept counting the starfish,” Professor Isabelle Cote recalled in an interview. “When they came up from the dive, he said, ‘Look what I found.'” As you might imagine, the whole team felt curious and wanted to find out everything about the unusual find!
5. Grabbing Her Attention
After Doherty revealed what he had found, the old camera particularly caught the attention of Cote’s co-professor, Siobhan Gray. What was so special about this rusty camera?
Well, while Gray had accompanied the group out that day, her main interest of study was not actually the starfish. Instead, she had tagged along to study aquatic plant life for the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center. When looking at the camera, Grey felt amazed to see fauna growing on the surface of the electronic! So she decided to take the rusty camera back to her lab for further investigation. Back at the lab, Gray found far more than she ever expected…
6. An Ecosystem
Gray could not believe the miniature ecosystem that she discovered living inside the old, rusty camera. While she had seen plenty of algae and plant life on the outside of the camera, nothing could prepare her for the inside!
Inside, Gray found not only several more species of algae, but also a sea cucumber and two brittle stars. For those not in the know, brittle stars are very similar to sea stars, just much, much smaller. Nature had found a way to take over the camera and turn it into part of its ecosystem, as Gray and Cote taught in their ecology classes. However, as luck would have it, that wasn’t all that Gray had discovered…
7. A Valuable Find
Now, many might assume that a camera that spent years underwater would be completely useless. And they’re right! However, memory cards, on the other hand, are known to be able to take quite the beating. And, when Gray popped it out of its tray, it actually looked in pretty good shape!
Even though the SD card was covered in black algae, the team hoped that it would still work when placed in a computer. Even better, they hoped that a few shots had survived the water damage. If they had, the dive team might even be able to track down the original owner. While it felt like a long shot, they felt more than willing to try!
8. The Moment of Truth
When Gray discovered that the SD card remained almost intact, she felt another wave of excitement flow through her. “My first thought about the camera was, are there still images on the card?” she recalled. Even in the interview, months after finding the camera, Gray could still barely contain how excited she felt about solving this long-forgotten mystery.
After removing the SD card from the camera, Gray carefully cleaned every bit of it with an earbud and rubbing alcohol. Then, Gray slotted it into her computer and took a deep breath. The moment of truth arrived…and the memory card worked!
9. Long-Lost Memories
Gray felt incredibly happy to learn that not only did the eight-gigabyte Lexar Platinum card still work, but that plenty of videos and pictures had survived! Hopefully, the memory card’s contents would lead the team to the camera’s rightful owner. Unfortunately, the task would soon prove harder than first expected…
Even though Gray felt reluctant to scroll through somebody’s personal photos, she knew of no other way to get to the bottom of this mystery. So she started looking at the images one by one. As she scrolled through them, Gray realized that the pictures continued many of the same people (seen above) at various get-togethers, dating back to July 30, 2012.
10. It Didn’t Feel Right
Despite feeling happy that she had access to the pictures, Gray still did not feel right looking through someone’s personal property. Even worse, after going through every single photo, she failed to find any clues that would help her find the owner. The professor had no idea what to do next.
Still, as Gray looked at the photos, she knew that, given their content, they must mean a lot to the family seen above. So, even though she didn’t know what she would do next, the professor felt determined to not give up. Thankfully, Gray was about to unlock a clue that would solve everything…
11. The Search
Running out of ideas on her own, Gray decided to ask her colleague, Isabelle Cote, seen in the photo, for help. Unsurprisingly, she was more than happy to help Gray solve the mystery of the underwater camera. After taking a moment to think, Cote realized they had the best chance of finding the camera’s owner by posting the pictures on social media.
The very next day, the pair began tweeting out certain photos, using the hashtag #detectives. Soon enough, the pictures garnered hundreds of comments, likes, and retweets. However, despite all the interaction and feedback, no one came forward to claim the images. So, a couple days later, Cote and Gray decided to change their strategy up.
12. Posting Flyers
After a few days, Cote and Gray realized they were getting nowhere with the social media posts. So, they elected to try something new. After all, they had agreed to never back down! The camera was too important to its original owner! Running out of options, the two professors felt willing to try everything they could think of.
Eventually, Cote, Gray, and the rest of the dive team resorted to printing out the pictures and posting them around the town. Believe it or not, it didn’t take too long before a member of the local Coast Guard regimen actually recognized someone in the photos. It would seem one of the men in photos had been rescued from a shipwreck not too long ago…
13. The Diver In The Photos
As it turns out, one of the men in the photos was Paul Burgoyne, an artist from Vancouver. Apparently, Burgoyne had lost his boat back in 2012 when it sank, exactly where the diver had found the camera. After a short talk with Cote and Gray, the Coast Guard officer found Burgoyne’s phone number and got in touch with him.
After a short phone call with him, the Coast Guard officer took the camera in hopes of returning it to the man. Meanwhile, Cote and Gray felt thrilled that their hard work had finally yielded some results. Little did they know that the story would not end there…
14. Behind the Mystery
In late May of 2014, Gray received a phone call that finally put the entire mystery to bed. On the other end was none other than Paul Burgoyne, and “he was thrilled,” Gray said. Apparently, Burgoyne couldn’t believe that the dive team had found his long lost camera! And, just as Gray and her associate had predicted, he told her just how much the camera meant to him.
“He said when he got off the phone with the Coast Guard, he and his wife were laughing a great deal and mentioned how lucky he was,” Gray later said. As the professor and Burgoyne talked, he told just how important the photos on the camera were to him…
15. Incredibly Important Photos
Burgoyne felt particularly grateful as the bulk of the photos on the card did not capture any ordinary family gathering. You see, most of the pictures came from the day when he and his family had scattered his late mother’s ashes. That made the loss of his camera even harder: it had been all Burgoyne had to remember his mother by. Meanwhile, the rest of the car held some of his favorite scuba diving and snorkeling photos.
Of course, the professor needed to know how Burgoyne could have possibly lost such an important camera. As Gray would soon discover, he had lost the camera under the most harrowing of circumstances!
16. All Hell Breaks Loose
The entire adventure began two years yearly, on July 20, 2012. At the time, Burgoyne had been sailing to his summer home in Tahsis, British Columbia. Then, as things can on the sea, everything took a turn for the worst in a heartbeat.
Everything seemed fine at first, with the majority of the trip going off without a hitch. “I felt bliss when the ocean went calm and I was sitting at the back of the boat all by myself and thinking ‘What could be better than this?” Burgoyne recalled of the beginning of the trip. However, “all hell broke loose” when he hit a spot of bad weather…
17. An Ill-Fated Trip
As the final day approached, Burgoyne though he would sail on through without incident. Unfortunately, on the afternoon of the last day, the sailor placed his boat directly in the path of a massive storm.
For those who do not know, things can change on the sea in a heartbeat. In just minutes, the seas went from calm and beautiful to raging and terrifying. Sailing through the storm, Burgoyne tried to remain calm and rely on his skills to get him through. Unfortunately, as the sea grew more turbulent, his boat crashed into some unseen rocks near the shore. In the ensuing panic, Burgoyne dived from the boat into the water, losing everything, including his camera.
18. The Accident
After Burgoyne’s boat crashed against the rocks, and the hull smashed apart, it quickly sank into the ocean. Within a matter of minutes, he found himself stranded in the freezing cold water. Rapidly developing hypothermia, Burgoyne saw his entire life flash before his eyes. He felt sure he would never get out of the ghastly accident alive.
Thankfully, patrons at a nearby inn spotted him and called the Coast Guard. Believe it or not, Burgoyne had to stay in out in the cold water for six hours he was finally rescued and brought back to the shore Luckily, after a short hospital stay, he returned to full health. While in the hospital, the local community truly rallied together to help Burgoyne…
19. Rallying Around Burgoyne
The morning after the Coast Guard saved Burgoyne from the waters, the local Canadian newspaper ran a story about the rescue. Immediately, friends, family, and even strangers aided Burgoyne in his recovery. Many sent well-wishes and cards, while some went above and beyond, sending him gifts or food. In fact, a local electronics store, Future Shop, even replaced all his underwater camera equipment at no charge!
Unfortunately, regardless of the camera or well-wishes, Burgoyne could not help but still feel heartbroken. He truly appreciated them, but he had simply lost too much, in just a matter of seconds during the crash…
20. A Reminder
As you can imagine, Paul Burgoyne felt extremely grateful that he had made it out of the ocean alive and even had a new camera. However, as a result, he had lost hundreds of personal and meaningful possessions in the wreck, not just his pictures. At first, Burgoyne felt incredibly depressed and hurt at the loss. Still, in time, he learned to accept it. After all, it was the cost of his survival.
Still, out of all the objects he lost, Burgoyne felt most heartbroken about his missing camera. While he could replace most of the other possessions, he could not recreate the photos. For years, Burgoyne had assumed he had lost those memories for all time. So, you can only imagine how lucky he felt when the Coast Guard officer called him!
21. A Lucky Turn
As you might imagine, Burgoyne cannot believe he eventually got the camera back, after so long. “That just shocked me. Getting the camera, or the photos back, that’s really quite wonderful,” he said. “I have a new respect for, you know, these electronics. You throw most of it away every two years, but that little card is an amazing bit of technology.”
These days, the photographs serve as a reminder for Burgoyne to always be thankful for what he has. At first, he says, he had to give the camera up to understand the importance of life. Now that he’s learned to be thankful, the universe returned the camera to Burgoyne. However, he’s not the only lucky person in the world. Believe it or not, this is not the first time this has happened…
22. Not The First Time
As hard as it might be to believe, on the other side of the world, another long lost camera appeared in the ocean. This time, the camera in question washed up onto the beach in Taiwan. Meanwhile, barnacles covered the outer shell to the degree that it did look like part of the seafloor! However, once again, the camera remained surprisingly intact.
The makers of the waterproof case that protected the camera should really put these images on their Amazon page! While a group of schoolchildren found the missing camera, it would be their teacher who eventually found the owner…
23. Another Camera
When one of his 11-year-old students found and brought the camera to him, teacher Park Lee didn’t know exactly what to do. At first, he thought it was merely a rock, given the way it looked. Then, when he realized it was a camera, he didn’t think it could ever work. “We thought it was broken but then by chance, knocked off a barnacle on the casing and found a button to open the case,” Park Lee later said.
Amazingly, not a drop of water had entered, and the camera inside appeared to be in good shape. “Even more amazingly, the boy turned the power on, and the camera was still charged!” Lee said. Before long, Mr. Lee took the kids back to school to discuss what to do with their find.
24. Should We Take a Look?
Back at school, Mr. Lee and his students tried to figure out what to do with the camera. “Some children thought we had earned the camera and could keep for ourselves. Others suggested we should try to find the owner – and so we all sat down to think about how to do that,” Lee recalled. After a while, they all came to an agreement.
You see, Mr. Lee and his students knew that they needed to take a look at the photographs if they wanted to find its owner. Just like Gray and Cote, at first, they had mixed feelings about looking at the images. However, when they realized it was the only way to find the owner, everyone agreed it was the right thing to do.
25. Posting the Pictures
As soon as the class began scrolling through the pictures, they quickly discovered an essential piece of information. You see, they found most of the images were from Japan, so they narrowed down the country of the owner. Afterward, Mr. Lee posted the pictures on Facebook, captioning them in Japanese and Chinese.
Of course, like Gray and Cote, the class had no idea if posting the images on social media would work. In the end, while social media had not worked for the two professors in Canda, it would work for the class from Taiwan. Soon enough, the pictures, and the class, went completely viral!
26. Going Viral
While Mr. Lee and his students had high hopes to find the camera’s owner through their posts, they had no idea the posts would become viral – but they did! In just a matter of days, the Facebook post had over 100,000 shares and over 50,000 comments. Not only that, but this time around, the viral posts actually helped locate the camera’s owner.
Just a few days after the post went viral, Lee received a message in his inbox from the owner of the camera, diver Serina Tsubakihara, seen above. As you might imagine, the class of 10 and 11-year-olds could not wait to talk to her and return the camera!
27. Meet Diver Serina Tsubakihara
“I couldn’t believe it,” camera owner Serina Tsubakihara told the BBC after she saw the Facebook post. After getting in contact with Tsubakihara, Mr. Lee and his class knew they had done the right thing. Furthermore, as they would soon find out, this camera also held great importance to their own.
“I was super surprised when my friends told me about this and sent me the post with those pictures,” Tsubakihara continued. A Japanese university student, Tsubakihara felt incredibly happy to learn that someone had found the camera that contained pictures from her favorite diving vacation. Soon enough, she found herself talking to the class and telling them how she lost the camera!
28. Losing the Camera
As she relayed to the class, Serina Tsubakihara had been on vacation on the island of Ishigaki, Okinawa, some 155 miles east of Taiwan, when she lost her camera. “I was scuba diving, and I lost the camera when one of my friends ran out of air and needed my help.” Just like the camera in Britain, this diver had lost her camera due to a life and death situation!
When Tsubakihara dropped the camera from her hands in 2015, she felt sure that she had lost it forever. Meanwhile, safely encased in a diving case, the camera went on a little journey of its own. Well protected, it traveled hundreds of miles until it eventually washed up on a beach in Taiwan.
29. Feeling Grateful
While Tsubakihara lost the camera all those years ago, she could have never imagined it would end up on a beach in Taiwan, let alone that a child would find it and ultimately return her lost memories. “I am so lucky and happy to have this miracle opportunity to feel kindness of people in my life,” Tsubakihara said. “Those pictures reminded me of old memories and brought me back to those.”
These days, Tsubakihara regularly looks at the photographs and remembers not only the great vacation, but also the fantastic class that returned them. Feeling incredibly grateful to Mr. Lee and his students, Tsubakihara wanted to do something special to thank them.
30. Going Back to Taiwan
While Tsubakihara could have simply asked Mr. Lee to send her the photos by email, she wanted to go back to Taiwan and show them her appreciation. After all, it’s not every day that someone goes far out of their way to return a lost item. To her, that’s more valuable than the camera they found. Plus, they also returned all those incredible memories she thought she’d never see again!
So, Tsubakihara went to Taiwan and got the chance to meet all the students who helped her, as you can see in the photos above. Afterward, it seemed like the story of Tsubakihara and the school children was over. However, the grateful young woman had one last surprise in store for the children.
31. Setting Up The Surprise
When Tsubakihara went to Taiwan, she had to do so on a tight budget, as a student. In fact, she had to wait a few months before heading over even after contacting the class, in order to save up for a plane ticket! So, when Tsubakihara arrived, she felt a little sorry that she had not brought any thank you gift for the children.
On her flight back home, with her long lost camera tucked safely away in her bag, Tsubakihara tried to think of ways she could thank and surprise the class that had found her camera. Then, Tsubakihara remembered that the class was due to graduate third grade in six months or so. That gave the young woman quite the idea…
32. A Graduation Surprise
In the end, Tsubakihara decided to surprise the class once again during their third-grade graduation. She arrived without any forward notice, this time towing along all sorts of awesome gifts, including toys and candies, as well as handmade thank you cards. According to the local Taiwanese newspaper, the children were over the moon to see their old friend. Apparently, Tsubakihara had made quite an impression on the class.
These days, Tsubakihara continues to dive and would like to return when the class graduates from middle school. Meanwhile, she’s never discovered anything more than cool fish on her dives, no long-lost cameras. Of course, some divers have found much more than a camera underwater…
33. Finding Much More Than A Camera
Long before Siobhan Gray, Mr. Lee, you, or I lived, pharaohs ruled much of present-day Egypt and Sudan with an iron fist. At the end of their lives, many pharaohs were entombed inside massive pyramids, now considered some of the greatest architectural achievements of all time. While you might think that today we know all there is to know about ancient civilizations, think again!
In the present day, over 2,300 years after the pharaohs reigned, diver and underwater archeologist Pearce Creasman decided to explore a newly discovered pyramids, one partially submerged in water. However, they had no idea that the risk and dangerous expedition could lead to one of the most significant historical discoveries ever…
34. Preparing to Plunge Into The Depths
While this incredible story ends with archeologist Pearce Creasman, it all began with his colleague, Kristin Romey (seen in the photo). For years and years, Romey had searched for the forgotten tomb of Nastasen, a pharaoh of Nubia. She hoped that finding the grave of Nastasen would bring new information to light about the ancient civilization of Kush that once held sway over much of northern Africa.
Finally, she found her answer. Historical texts suggested Nastasen had been buried in an unexplored pyramid on the border of Egypt and Sudan. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a problem. There was an excellent reason that most of the pyramid remained unexplored…
35. Knowing Where To Head
When texts revealed that Nastasen’s tomb sat underneath a pyramid in the Nuri complex, Romey’s heart sank. There was an excellent reason why the pyramid remained unexplored: much of it was submerged underwater, due to rising groundwater in northern Sudan. Exploring the tomb would require underwater archeology, a field still in its infancy.
However, despite the challenges, Romey could not help but feel excited when she arrived at Nuri and saw the pyramid under which Nastasen’s tomb hid. While the circumstances were undoubtedly unappealing for Romey and her team, they felt willing to risk it all to reach Nastasen’s tomb!
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