Richard West
It’s a story of treasure lost at sea and a fisherman’s catch of a lifetime. Fisherman Richard West of Plymouth, England, recently found a small plastic shark in his ship’s nets off the Cornwall coast. He immediately recognized it as a LEGO piece, like the ones that came with the LEGO pirate ship sets he built as a child.
This isn’t the first time a LEGO has washed up near Cornwall. In February 1997, the cargo ship Tokio Express was on its way from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to New York City when it was hit by a rogue wave, tossing 62 containers overboard, including one packed with LEGO pieces. Appropriately enough, many of the pieces had ocean themes, like divers’ flippers, pirates’ cutlasses, and seaweed. These pieces have been washing ashore ever since. Earlier this year, a teenage boy found an octopus, an especially rare piece, while walking on the beach.
Shortly after the spill, Cornish beachcomber Tracey Williams began collecting and photographing the LEGO pieces she found on the beach, leading to her book Adrift: The Curious Tale of the LEGO Lost at Sea. While it’s fun to find treasures on the beach and always exciting for a LEGO collector to pick up a rare piece, there’s a serious side to this issue: it’s one of many examples of the plastic pollution that’s increasingly affecting Earth’s oceans and marine wildlife.
West contacted Williams after he landed his catch. She told him that the inventory for the lost container included LEGO sharks, but he was the first to recover one.
Richard West
Collectors often consider vintage LEGO sets an investment. According to the website BrickEconomy.com, a collector’s guide to the market value of LEGO sets, the Pirate themed sets have all increased in value.
West, however, doesn’t appear to be interested in the monetary value of the shark he found. It can’t compare to the experience and sentimental value, or even the knowledge that one piece of plastic is no longer polluting the seas. According to the BBC, West considers his find “priceless.”
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