lego lost at sea

TRACEY WILLIAMS CATALOGUES PLASTIC DEBRIS THAT WASHES UP FROM THE OCEAN.

Here’s something you might not realise: every year, more than 1000 shipping containers are lost at sea. In February 1997, when a freak wave hit the cargo ship Tokio Express, 62 containers alone toppled overboard, carrying with them nearly five million pieces of LEGO. It wasn’t long before Tracey Williams, a lifelong beachcomber, noticed bits of plastic seagrass washing ashore near her parents’ seaside home in Devon, England. And nearly three decades on, Tracey and other folks in the neighbouring county of Cornwall continue to find little plastic flowers, yellow life jackets, scuba tanks and spear guns down on the beach. (Rather fittingly, much of the lost LEGO appears to have been nautical-themed.)

“The ship headed off for repairs, but many of the containers are thought to have sunk in the seabed,” Tracey explains. “We tend to find LEGO after winter storms and high spring tides, when surging waves eat into the sand dunes. That releases the plastic that’s been trapped there for decades.” Over the years, curious collectors have shown off their toy treasures at local venues, turned them into artwork and jewellery, and kept jars full of their finds. At one point, there were even quests to find the ‘holy grail’: LEGO dragons and octopi.

Gathering washed-up LEGO was just a bit of fun for Tracey and her kids at first, but as pieces were still drifting ashore so many years later, she decided to start recording her finds. She set off on daily walks, collecting, sorting and photographing plastic debris, before posting the results on her Facebook page. She’s been on a “voyage into ocean plastic” ever since, mapping cargo spills and LEGO sightings around the world with the help of a community of beachcombers.

“Collecting LEGO has made me realise how much plastic there is at the bottom of the sea,” Tracey says. “Some LEGO found in fishing nets is in near-perfect condition, despite having been on the sea floor for more than 20 years.” It’s not just toy bricks that Tracey regularly finds, either. Various bits of junk from container spills – including shoes, detergent bottles and knee pads – are carried to Cornwall via the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift. She’s even found a mysterious Tjipetir block, a 100-year-old rubber-like slab from Indonesia. “Cleaning up after a cargo spill is often easier said than done,” she notes. “Goods can be scattered far and wide.” Tracey’s written a book, Adrift, (due out later this year) to both tell the story of the great LEGO spill of 1997 and highlight what gets tossed overboard. “I hope it will raise awareness of plastic in the ocean, how long it lasts, and how far it floats.”

See more of Tracey’s finds on Instagram at @legolostatsea.