Not Such A Peculiar Item After All
Camera Case - Lost at Sea

Park Lee took a closer look before cleaning off the barnacles from the unusual object. After removing some of the barnacles it appeared to everyone that the unusual object was nothing but a waterproof case of a camera. But it wasn’t an empty case and the reason it was so heavy was that it had a Canon G12 camera contained in it. “We thought it was broken, but then by chance, knocked off a barnacle on the casing and found a button to open the case,” Lee said.

Speculations

An Amazing Discovery - Lost at Sea

The protecting case’s seal was intact but was it just enough to save the camera? It had to endure strong waves and currents and various other forces that lie in the water body, which for sure would have made it difficult for the case remain sealed all this while. Or if this wasn’t the case, maybe a local would have lost it here. Among all these speculations lay the truth, which would soon be disclosed. 

Bodyguard

All credit goes to the waterproof case, it protected the camera from the seawater and kept it intact as well as in a good physical condition. By the looks of the plastic case, it was right to say that the camera must have been there at the beach for a long period of time. However, despite its good physical condition, the question remained; did it work as well?

Lights, Camera, Action!

Canon PowerShot G12 - Lost at Sea

The curious yet excited students tried to turn the camera on and when they hit the power button, to their surprise it did switch on and had enough battery power left in it. Moreover, it had hundreds of pictures stored in its memory card that still functioned to its best. It didn’t take Lee much time to understand that this camera had an interesting history and a story to tell…

The Ethics Of It All

Full Memory Card of Photographs - Lost at Sea

The students made it back to the classroom but the question still remained unanswered – what to do with the camera? Going through the pictures of a stranger’s camera struck as unethical to Lee, but this was the only thing they could do if they were to find the owner of this 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 said,  But in a case to do the latter, they had to browse through the pictures.

The First Clue

Girl Scuba Diving - Lost at Sea

Park Lee along with his students decided to go through the pictures and they found that the last picture clicked on the camera was dated September 7, 2015. It was a picture of a female who had been clicking snaps while scuba diving. The picture didn’t help them much in identifying the place where she had been diving and neither did her diving suit give any clue that could help discern the location. So they started to look at more pictures.