A rare shark, unseen in 27 years, was caught near the UK shore.

Richard West was in for a shock when he reeled in his fishing line. The 35-year-old fisherman from Plymouth was out on the Penzance coast, hoping for a good catch, when he made an unexpected discovery. It wasn't a big fish like he had hoped, but a small Lego shark. This wasn't just any Lego shark, it was a rare find that hadn't been seen for nearly three decades.

As he pulled up his line, Richard couldn't believe his eyes. It was a Lego shark from a cargo ship incident that had occurred 27 years ago. The infamous Tokio Express cargo ship had crashed on February 13, 1997, causing 62 shipping containers to fall into the sea. One of these containers was carrying 4,756,940 pieces of Lego, including the shark that Richard had just found.

Richard, who had a love for Lego sharks since he was a child, immediately recognized the vintage toy. He was overjoyed to have found it and couldn't believe his luck. "I could tell straight away what it was because I had Lego sharks in the pirate ship set when I was little. I loved them. It's been 25 years since I've seen that face," he said.

After his exciting discovery, Richard reached out to a group called Lego Lost at Sea, who were dedicated to tracking down the lost pieces from the Tokio Express incident. They were just as thrilled as Richard to have found one of the missing Lego sharks. "This Lego shark is one of 51,800 lost overboard from the Tokio Express and the only one we've ever seen," they wrote on their Facebook page.

The group also mentioned that these Lego sharks were part of various sets from 1997, including Shark Cage Cove, Shark Attack, and Deep Sea Bounty. They joked that they still had 51,799 more to find. Richard was happy to have contributed to their mission and told them, "It's way better than any fish I've caught all week."

According to Tracey Williams, the founder of Lego Lost at Sea, the official Lego inventory showed that there were 22,200 dark grey Lego sharks and 29,600 light grey ones in the lost container. These pieces had washed up on the coast of Cornwall and had been found in various places such as the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Wales, and Ireland.

Tracey was thrilled to add another piece to their project and even joked that she and Richard now had "joint custody" of the Lego shark. She also urged anyone else who had retrieved Lego pieces from the incident to contact their project. They were hoping to add more sightings to their map and publish a scientific paper on the incident.

Richard couldn't contain his excitement about his find. "I was so excited. I was more happy about finding the shark than anything else I caught this week. It's priceless - it's treasure!" he exclaimed. It was a memorable catch for Richard, and he was happy to have contributed to the Lego Lost at Sea project.

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