Call it a net positive.
A British fisherman succeeded hook an incredibly rare shark — a tiny Lego creature belonging to a 1990s set that’s reportedly worth a few hundred clams on the resale market.
Richard West, 35, reeled in the large plastic predator 20 miles off the coast of Cornwall, near supposedly pirate-free Penzance. The attuned trawler immediately recognized the nostalgia item from childhood.
“I could immediately tell what it was, because I had Lego sharks in the pirate ship when I was little. I loved them” West told the BBC.
“It’s been 25 years since I saw that face.”
No worse for wear after nearly three decades lost at sea, the Lego piece was found to have disappeared from an ill-fated Tokio Express cargo ship in 1997 – along with 62 other shipping containers’ worth of products – during an intense storm.
Of the nearly five million pieces of plastic that took the plunge that day, 51,800 sharks are said to have gone overboard.
The event has since become the stuff of Lego legend.
Author Tracey Williams wrote an account of the event in 2022, titled “Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea.” She also runs the “Lego Lost at Sea” project. — where people flag the bricks they’ve managed to recover from the briny depths.
When West reported the missing piece to Williams, the find was confirmed as the first shark from the lost cargo ever found.
The right-sized beast belonged to one of three sets: Shark Cage Cove, Shark Attack or Deep Sea Bounty.
The trio is currently selling in the stock market-like Lego retail world for between $105 to $532 each.
“I was so excited. I was more excited to find the shark than anything else I caught this week,” West said. “It’s priceless — it’s a treasure!”
Coincidentally, Lego was launched a new “Jaws” themed set just a few days ago.