1,300 years from now, Legos might still be popping up on this beach…

For beachcombers , Cornwall, in the southwest corner of England, is a hidden gem.

The treasures people are looking for here are not rare shells, but Lego toys . Witch brooms, plastic swords, diving flippers, black and green dragons, all kinds of toy parts have appeared one after another on the beaches of Cornwall. This strange scene has lasted for 26 years .

Where do these little things come from?

Lego toys popping up on the beach? | BBC

Lost at Sea

The story of these plastic building blocks began on February 13, 1997, when a cargo ship called the Tokio Express encountered unusually strong waves in the waters off southwest England.

Container ship Tokio Express (photographed in 1988) | Wikipedia

According to the captain, the storm was a "once-in-a-century event." Although the cargo ship was not completely overturned, it tilted 60 degrees in the wind and waves. The 62 cargo boxes on board fell into the sea and were lost about 32 kilometers from Cornwall - one of which contained nearly 5 million Lego parts.

Soon after the accident, LEGO toys began to leak from the damaged containers and appeared on nearby beaches, and plastic toys from the spill continue to be found to this day.

26 years after the accident, people continue to pick up these Lego toys from the beach | Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition

Beach Treasure Hunt

According to the inventory provided by Lego, there are 4,756,940 missing plastic building blocks of 100 types. Coincidentally, there are many marine-themed parts among them - such as life rafts, plastic seaweed, octopuses, diving cylinders and life jackets.

Bright yellow Lego life rafts on the beach. Beach cleaners continued to find them this year | Lego Lost At Sea

Plastic flowers and mini life jackets are the most common trophies found, all in bright and eye-catching colors, while the black octopus is the most sought-after rare collectible - not only are there very few of them, but they are always hidden among the dark seaweed, so only the really lucky treasure hunters can find them.

A black Lego octopus, a rare and popular trophy among beachcombers | Tracey Williams

At first, the most buoyant parts of Lego washed up on the beach, but as time went on, some of the items that had sunk to the bottom of the sea also appeared in the sight of fishermen and beach cleaners, such as white door frames and red radios .

Plastic building blocks with radio designs | Lego Lost At Sea

Some parts, however, seem to be missing entirely . Black witch hats, bat-printed shields, grey plastic sharks, tens of thousands of each, are lost in the ocean, and few if any have ever been found.

The lost container contained 51,800 grey plastic sharks, but no one seems to have ever found them | Lego Lost At Sea

Across the Ocean

In addition to Cornwall, which is closest to the accident site, the Lego bricks drifting in the sea have also reached farther places riding on ocean currents .

Beach cleaner Tracey Williams set up a Facebook group for the lost Legos, where people from around the world share their finds on the beach.

After widespread media coverage, more people joined the search for beach Lego | Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition

In 2013, a black Lego octopus was found on Galveston Island in Texas, USA. In Melbourne, Australia, someone also found a blue mini plastic flipper on the beach. Although it is not completely certain, oceanographers believe that these treasures found in faraway places may all come from the lost cargo box of the "Tokyo Express" .

Tracking these plastic toys may help people better understand the drifting patterns of marine debris | Lego Lost At Sea

These lost containers are easier to identify than regular trash, so they offer scientists a unique opportunity to track them and analyze how fast ocean plastic is moving and where it's going .

Continuing for a thousand years

How long will the remaining Lego pieces remain in the ocean? The answer may be longer than people think.

Williams worked with oceanographer Andrew Turner and others to study the degradation rate of Lego bricks. The results showed that these plastic toys may take 100-1300 years to completely degrade in the ocean , depending on the size of the parts and the environment they are in. That is to say, even after a thousand years, humans may still have the opportunity to continue to discover Lego wreckage from the "Tokyo Express".

Plastic bricks could remain in the ocean for thousands of years. Will they be used by future archaeologists to recall the past? | Andrew Turner, University of Plymouth

Plastic toys are only a minority of marine debris, and their number is far less than that of floating fishing net fragments or plastic bottles. But even so, they still pose a threat to marine life , for example, some fish will be stuck by Lego parts.

A small shark trapped in a Lego door frame, found by fisherman Ian Jepson | Ian Jepson / Twitter

Finding Legos on the beach might be fun, but the real happy ending is not letting them end up in the ocean again .

References

[1]Tracey Williams. Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea. Unicorn Publishing Group, 2022

[2]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749119364152

Author: Window Knocking Rain

Edit: Thoughts

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]