Home video filmed by a TURTLE as diver's lost camera is taken on a 1,100-mile ocean odyssey
By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
Last updated at 12:03 PM on 15th June 2010

 

The 1,100-mile journey of a diver's camera lost in the Caribbean has been revealed with the extraordinary help of a sea turtle who switched it on and filmed some of the epic adventure.

Royal Dutch Navy sergeant Dick de Bruin was exploring a wreck off the tropical island of Aruba last year when his bright red camera silently floated away.

Yet following a six-month odyssey the camera has found its way back to Mr. De Bruin, with some unique ocean footage recorded by the turtle.

 

 
Camera's turtle footage

Home video: Video footage taken by a sea turtle that became entangled with a camera later found on a Florida beach. A coastguard tracked down the camera's owner - 1,100 miles away on the Caribbean island of Aruba

 
 
Camera turtle footage

Amateur filmmaker: The yellow strap of the camera can be seen on the turtle's flipper. The footage has been watched more than 460,000 times on YouTube

 

 

The lost camera was reunited with Mr. de Bruin thanks to some impressive detective work by a Florida coastguard, who spotted it pounding against the rocks of a Key West marina on May 16.

Paul Shultz waded into the waters for a closer look and fished out the Nikon camera, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months' worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was in an almost pristine condition.

However, clues to tracking down its owner were few. 
 

There were photos of two men preparing to scuba dive; a family nestled together on a couch; a mysterious relic settled deep into the sea floor - and a puzzling video clip of splashing water that appeared to have been taken as the camera thrashed around under the control of something that wasn't human.

 
Paul Shultz

Sleuth: Coastguard Paul Shultz found the camera last month when it washed up at a Key West marina. He set about tracking down its owner

 
 
 
Dick de Bruin and Toine van der Klooster

The camera's owner Dick De Bruin (left) poses for a picture with his Royal Dutch Navy colleague Toine van der Klooster in November, just before he lost the Nikon while exploring a wreck in the Carribean. This was just one of the clues that helped Florida coastguard Paul Schultz track him down

Mr. Schultz said: 'There was nothing on the pictures that said this camera belongs to so and so.'

Determined to locate the owner, he took went online under the screen name 'Aquahound' and uploaded the images on Scubaboard.com, hoping some diving aficionados could help identify where they were taken. 
 

Within days, online contributors had identified the location as Aruba, a Dutch island off the Venezuelan coast, some 1,100 miles from Key West.

Other photographs show a plane's tail number, and a computer search showed the aircraft was in Aruba the day the photo was taken. There was a blue-roofed building, which online investigators pinpointed to the island using Google Earth, and a school poster written in Dutch.

 
Camera journey

Epic trek: The 1,100-mile journey the camera is thought to have made. Starting near the island of Aruba in November last year, it encountered the sea turtle near Honduras before washing up in Key West in May

 

 

Mr. Shultz then posted the photos on the travel websites CruiseCritic.com and Aruba.com, and within two days was contacted by an Aruban woman who said she recognized the children in some of the photos as classmates of her son.

She contacted the family, the de Bruins, and all the pieces came together.

'I have a smile on my face, I can't stop laughing about it,' Mr. de Bruin said. 'It's really big news on the island.'

And what of the mysterious video clip? It seems the camera was mistaken for a meal by a hungry sea turtle who inadvertently switched it on while trying to shake it off after becoming entangled in its strap and filmed a five-minute section of itself swimming with.
 

The video footage has now been viewed more than 460,000 times on YouTube. 

 
Dick de Bruin explores the wreck of the USS Powell

Mr. de Bruin and his dive team were salvaging the anchor of the USS Powell (pictured) when his camera floated away

 

 

Mr. De Bruin, a sergeant in the Royal Dutch Navy, has been stationed with his family in Aruba for three years.

The camera floated away from his grasp while he and a dive team were salvaging an anchor from the USS Powell for a World War II memorial. The American ship protected Aruba, a major oil producer, from German forces during the war.

'There's a big connection between America and Aruba ... first with the anchor, and now the camera brings us together again,' Mr de Bruin said.

The camera has been posted to the de Bruin family and should arrive in Aruba any day.

'When I told people what Paul had done, they were astonished. They didn't believe it,' Mr de Bruin added. 'But we have the sea turtle on film proving the camera floated from Aruba to the U.S. It's unbelievable, but it's true.'

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