On a gloomy, drizzly day in late June, marine biologist Hayley Hardstaff of Cornwall, England, went on her regular walk along Portwrinkle Beach. What started out as an ordinary stroll became extraordinary when she came across a black, plastic dragon missing its upper jaw. To her surprise, it was a piece of Lego, no ordinary piece, but the remains of one of history’s most bizarre marine accidents.
In 1997, an accident between a cargo ship and a rogue wave led to one of the most bizarre environmental disasters in history – the Great LEGO Spill. The Tokio Express, a cargo ship sailing from Rotterdam to New York, capsized off the coast of England, losing almost five million LEGO pieces to the sea, including 33,427 black dragons. The incident resulted in the loss of all 62 of its shipping containers, leading to one of the largest toy-related environmental disasters.
Twenty-seven years later, people are still finding these tiny plastic artefacts on beaches across Europe.
Tracy Williams, who started the “LEGO Lost at Sea” Facebook page, has been documenting these LEGO discoveries for years. This spill included marine-themed pieces such as dragons, octopuses, seaweed, scuba tanks and life rafts. Some pieces, such as the black dragons and green octopuses, have become prized finds for beachgoers.
Ocean currents can carry debris far and wide, making it difficult to ascertain the extent of such pollution, explained Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer known for tracking the 1992 Friendly Floaties spill. Although some pieces have been found in the Netherlands, France and Belgium, many have been lost, presumably sunk to the sea floor.
Mr Ebbesmeyer’s curiosity about the Cornwall leak led him to investigate further. He contacted LEGO and received a list of the contents of the container, as well as samples of the pieces. Testing them in his bathtub revealed that half the pieces were floating, which may explain why many are missing.
In the years that followed, pieces appeared sporadically, often found by fishermen trawling the sea floor. One of the rarest finds, a Lego shark, was recently caught 20 miles off the Cornish coast, the first glimpse of this specific piece in 27 years. According to the account “Lego Lost at Sea,” 51,799 of these sharks are still missing.
Best catch of the day!
OMG – our first LEGO shark from the Great LEGO Spill of 1997 has just been pulled out of the deep waters! Caught in a fisherman’s net after spending 27 years at the bottom of the ocean and somewhat injured and scarred, this LEGO shark is one of the 51,800 lost sharks… pic.twitter.com/EFbuGU6NGU
– LEGO Lost at Sea (@LegoLostAtSea) August 2, 2024
Professor Andrew Turner considers the incident an interesting case study because of the public awareness it raised. Unlike most container spills, the Great Lego Spill was made public, and it is only a small part of the vast plastic pollution in the ocean.
Mr Turner says this is just the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to plastic pollution in the ocean. He pointed to the vast amount of plastic that exists on the sea floor, much of which is unaccounted for and whose potential impact is still largely unknown.
