BCWF Watershed Team

Photos are cherished keepsakes that cause memories to flood back with just a look. Losing photos is not unlike losing memories from a rosy past.  

As the Fraser River Tidal Marsh Clean-up (FRTMC) team was out removing debris along Boundary Bay, one of our crew members found a small bottle with three SD cards inside. Worried that some water may have leaked into the bottle causing damage to the cards, the team submerged the cards in rice. To our surprise, the SD cards miraculously survived!  

The cards held photos taken by a father who had captured his family growing up. Photos from his wife’s 50^th birthday, a wedding, his daughter’s many birthdays, and even some wildlife photography, were all present. We knew we had to return these cards to their rightful owner. But how? 

After some brainstorming, we posted some of the photos of the family on Reddit, including a portrait of the owner and their dog, asking for anyone who might know the couple. We doubted we would be able to find the photographer, especially since the photos were lost more than five years ago.  

Fortunately, the story spread like wildfire, with people sharing the post all over Facebook and X (Twitter), with one Washington State private investigator even offering to help find the rightful owner of the SD cards. To our surprise, a friend of the card owners recognized them and connected us to the owners in less than 24 hours!  

According to the owner of the SD cards, he had lost the photos in Semiahmoo Bay, WA (across the border from White Rock, B.C.) while trekking with a friend. This means that the SD cards would have travelled more than 15 km to where they eventually washed up along Boundary Bay where we found them in our silty site.  

Possible travel path of the lost SD cards, travelling approximately 17 km to our clean-up location in Boundary Bay.  

In the end, our small world was able to come together to reunite these SD cards with their rightful owners.  

A message from the 2024 Fraser River Tidal Marsh Clean-up Crew: 

Thanks to this experience, we had the opportunity to not only steward our local ecosystems but also foster interpersonal connections! If you want to see if you can return lost items to their owners, why not start your own shoreline clean-up? Stay tuned for our tips on how to successfully host your own shoreline clean-up!