Camera lost in 2012 shipwreck found with pictures intact

A camera lost in a shipwreck has been found nearly two years after the vessel sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Vancouver Island.

And not only was the device returned to its rightful owner, but its memory card and all of the images on it were also completely intact, as Fox News reports.

According to The Vancouver Sun, two university students in Canada spotted the camera while on a research dive with their class earlier this month.

The camera wasn't exactly in the best shape when the students brought it to the surface. A professor who was also on the research dive told CBC several species of marine life had made the device their home.

But when a dive and safety officer who was on the boat with the students opened the back of the camera to look for more sea creatures, she discovered a memory card stuck inside.

She told The Vancouver Sun, "My first thought about the camera was, are there still images on the card? I cleaned the contacts off of the [memory card] put it in my computer and it worked."

The team then decided to share some of those images on Twitter to see if they could track down the camera's owner. And sure enough, someone from the local Coast Guard recognized this man as Paul Burgoyne - a man who had been rescued from a shipwreck in the area back in 2012.

He told CBC: "Hell broke loose, and there was an explosion. I hit the dash, then the ceiling, then the floor."

Burgoyne was rescued soon after. He told CBC thought he'd never see his camera or the priceless family photos captured on it again - until now.

"We spread my mom and dad's ashes in Lake of the Woods, Ontario. That was a group of family photos from that event."

Both the camera and the memory card were sent back to Burgoyne earlier this week.