Camera lost at sea for more than two years is found still working and will be returned to its owner

A Japanese woman has been reunited with a camera she dropped in the ocean two-and-a-half years ago, after schoolchildren in Taiwan found it washed up on a beach and covered in barnacles.

Serina Tsubakihara lost her Canon camera while scuba diving off Okinawa in September 2015 when she went to the aid of a friend, and feared it had been lost forever.

This week schoolchildren on a beach-cleaning trip found what appeared to be a rock, but turned out to be the digital camera safely housed inside a waterproof case – and still perfectly functional.

Once recovered, the device even had enough battery charge remaining to power on and display the last images its owner had taken.

Serina Tsubakihara's Canon G12 camera, released from the waterproof housing that had protected it from the ocean for two-and-a-half years (EPA)
On Tuesday the children’s teacher, Park Lee, posted a number of those photos on Facebook and mere hours later Ms Tsubakihara saw them through friends, and knew her camera had been found.

Mr Lee praised the “magical internet” in a message announcing the improbable re-discovery.

Ms Tsubakihara, a student at Sophia University in Tokyo, wrote on Facebook: “I never thought this would happen. I can’t still believe this is happening but the only thing I want to say is thank you so much for every single person who was involved with this!

“I am so lucky and happy to have such a wonderful experience to feel the kindness of people.”

Mr Lee told the BBC his class had debated what to do with the camera, found more than 150 miles away from where it was originally lost.

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“Some children thought we had earned the camera and could keep [it] for ourselves. Others suggested we should try to find the owner, and so we all sat down to think about how to do that,” he said.

The group doubted whether viewing the images was the right thing to do but decided it was the only way to track down the photographer, the broadcaster reported.

Ms Tsubakihara plans to travel to Taiwan in June to meet Mr Lee and retrieve her camera.