Fisherman didn't need a bigger boat to catch first-ever 'lost' Lego shark

A UK fisherman landed a shark in one of his hauls, but this one wasn't alive, it was a rare Lego shark lost at sea almost 30 years ago.

Devon fisherman, Richard West, 35, jaws dropped when he came across the unique plastic toy on the top of his fishing nets, which were positioned 20 miles south of Penzance.

Recognising the shark from Lego sets he had as a child, he contacted the project Lego Lost at Sea. Its founder Tracey Williams confirmed the plastic shark to be the first-ever reported shark from the 51,800 Lego sharks lost in a shipping container off the Tokio Express cargo ship in February 1997.

Not a bad record for this vicinity, Williams told him the official Lego inventory showed there were 22,200 dark grey Lego sharks and 29,600 light grey ones still yet to resurface.

Richard West was told the Lego shark he found was the first recovered from the lost shipping container

Ironically, of the staggering 4,756,940 pieces of Lego lost at sea, much of it was sea-themed.

Lego from the container lost overboard has also recently turned up not just in Cornwall , but also in the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Wales and Ireland.

Words by Dean Newman

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