A fisherman captured the rare Lego shark, 27 years after a container carrying millions of the small toys fell from a ship.
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A fisherman from Devon, England, captured a rare Lego shark, 27 years after a container holding millions of the small toys fell from a ship.
The Lego piece was on a Tokio Express cargo ship in February 1997 when a storm swept away the 62 containers being transported, which carried a wide range of products.
Among the containers was one holding nearly 5 million Lego pieces, precisely 4,756,940. More than 50,000 of these were sharks from some sets produced by the brand that year, such as Shark Cage Cove, Shark Attack, and Deep Sea Bounty.
The incident became known as the “Great Lego Spill of 1997” and even inspired a book and a project called “Lego Lost at Sea,” where people share the pieces they have managed to recover from the depths of the sea over the years.
Richard West discovered the plastic toy in one of his fishing nets and soon contacted Tracey Williams, the project leader, who confirmed that the piece is the first shark ever reported.
In a post about the capture, Lego Lost at Sea said: “Oh my God – our first Lego shark from the ‘Great Lego Spill of 1997’ has just been recovered from the depths!”
“Caught in a fisherman’s net and somewhat damaged after 27 years on the ocean floor, this Lego shark is one of 51,800 lost from the Tokio Express and the only one we have ever seen.”
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