KIRSTYANDREWS
Here be treasure !
Kirsty Andrews has a habit of finding the lost property of her fellow divers . She delights in reuniting people with their objects of desire
Ascending from the depths of a beautiful pinnacle to the South of Eddystone lighthouse , some 14 miles from Plymouth , I recently happened upon some buried treasure . Well it wasn ’ t exactly buried , more lightly resting on a gently sloping reef , nestled between jewel anemones . And some might not necessarily call it treasure , but I was excited . A GoPro ! I quickly shoved it in my pocket and promptly forgot about it .
Back on the boat , my dive team were in two minds as to what to do with this miraculously recovered object . Some remarked that it would be a pleasing addition to my admittedly already well-stocked armoury of underwater photography equipment . Others more generously suggested it might be possible to find the owner somehow . I tended to side with the second group . I mean , a girl can have too much equipm … no that wasn ’ t it at all , but I liked the idea of the challenge of finding the owner , not to mention the karma .
The GoPro seemed none the worse for wear for its watery abandonment , and switched on with no trouble . There were no clues as to ownership other than some previous footage with blurry portraits of buddies and some wreckage which we had fun trying to ID . My apologies to the nudibranch who had chosen the casing as a suitable spot to lay its eggs ; I ’ m afraid these were innocent victims of the recovery .
In the end it was remarkably easy to effect a reunion , thanks to social media . It may be the curse of modern times , but for bringing groups of like-minded folk together and finding lost GoPro owners , it really comes into its own . It was hardly a challenge , to be honest : it took less than an hour from me posting in a few likely groups for the owner to identify himself and the GoPro has now left my charge - easy come , easy go .
This wasn ’ t the first time I ’ ve claimed goodies from the sea . I ’ ve probably lost track on the precise details , but would certainly register in my historic haul a couple of torches , a mask or two , and at least a handful of snorkels . Indeed , this wasn ’ t
even my first Go Pro - although the first time barely counted as it slowly drifted down past my eyes on my descent ; another diver had jumped in after me with it on his head and it , well , wasn ’ t on his head for long .
Sadly , I have also sacrificed the occasional item to Neptune myself . I was most annoyed to have lost a weight pocket on jumping into the water last year , but then miraculously two dives later I found someone else ’ s weight pocket on the reef , and managed to enact a swap ! What are the chances ?
There ’ s a lesson here , well in fact a few , the first one being a note to self to take more care in hanging on to equipment ! Carabiners , bolt snaps , double-ended boltsnaps , cable-ties , plastic toggles are our friends . Another is , if you are misfortunate enough to lose an item , have you aided any selfless retriever of gear in identifying you ? If it ’ s a camera , you can put your contact details in the electronic metadata , or on the first photograph on a memory card - that would be very organised . For other bits of kit , maybe a name or contact number in good oldfashioned indelible ink or a sticker ; they could come in handy someday . �
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