Two years after a shipwreck off Vancouver Island claimed his boat, gear, and most treasured photographs, Vancouver artist Paul Burgoyne is about to be reunited with a piece of his past he thought lost forever.

In 2012, Burgoyne was sailing from Vancouver to his summer home in Tahsis, B.C., aboard his vessel, the Bootlegger. The trip ended in disaster when the boat wrecked, sending his belongings—including a camera loaded with priceless memories—into the depths.

Among the images were photos of a deeply personal family moment: relatives gathered to scatter his parents’ ashes at Lake of the Woods in Ontario. There was also video capturing turbulent seas in the hours before the sinking.

“I was shocked,” Burgoyne said. “Recovering the camera or the photos, that’s truly quite wonderful.”

In May, a team from the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre—students Tella Osler and Beau Doherty, with Diving and Safety Officer Siobhan Gray—were conducting research dives off Aguilar Point, B.C. At 12 meters down, they found a barnacle-encrusted camera on the ocean floor.

Marine Ecology professor Isabelle M. Côté of Simon Fraser University noted that the camera had become a habitat for marine life. Yet inside, its Lexar Platinum II 8 GB memory card had survived intact, with all images retrievable.

To find the owner, Côté posted a family portrait from the card online. By chance, a Bamfield coast guard member—who had helped rescue Burgoyne during the shipwreck—recognized him in the image.

The discovery stirred memories of the day his trawler went down: a calm moment on autopilot, sudden chaos, and the camera’s final shot less than an hour before sinking. For Burgoyne, it’s not just the return of a camera, but the restoration of irreplaceable moments—proof that, sometimes, the ocean gives back what it takes.