Mother and son reunited with camera lost at sea, 2 years after near-death experience

Two years after a near death experience, a P.E.I. mother and son have been reunited with a camera and footage lost at sea.

Beth Johnston and her son Charlie Ross lost their GoPro camera when they got caught in a rip current while swimming off the Island's north shore in July 2017. 

"You think of things, the way currents work, you know all of the things that could happen once it's in the ocean. It could be buried by sand or swallowed by a whale, or gone out in a current in a totally different direction," Johnston said. 

"But we knew that the footage on the camera would be really interesting because we had just filmed the final moments before we got caught. So I was always kind of searching the shores for it."

In the end, it was a young visitor to the Island who discovered the camera on the beach in Savage Harbour, not far from where Johnston and Ross had gone swimming.

Found on the beach

Eight year old Matthew MacRae, visiting from Ontario, spotted the camera in the sand while walking on the beach with his grandmother last week. 

"I didn't know quite what it was, but I was pretty interested if it was something special to somebody," said Matthew.

The camera itself is scratched and cracked, after two years in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but inside, the memory card was in perfect shape, with photos and videos perfectly preserved.

After looking at the photos and footage on the card, Matthew's father, Adam MacRae, talked to people in the area, who were able to identify Johnston and Ross. Soon they were in touch, and the camera was returned. 

'This eerie feeling'

Photos and video from the camera show laughing, smiling Johnston and Ross, enjoying an evening swim. 

"It was really neat for me to see, because Charlie was 12 when it happened, so on the images that were on the camera he was a little boy and his voice was high. And now he's, you know, taller than me and a teenager. So it was a really interesting sort of a time capsule that had been lost at sea," Johnston said. 

But they said it's also a reminder of how lucky they were — and looking at the photos stirs up many emotions. 

"This eerie feeling of like, that could have been the last video or photo I ever took of ourselves in the water," said Ross. 

Warning others about rip currents

After the incident two years ago, Johnston has been involved in advocacy and education about rip currents and ocean safety. 

She hopes the video could be useful in teaching others about rip currents. 

"I think a really important part of getting this footage back is actually seeing the video of how calm the water was that night. It wasn't sort of a treacherous thing that we did to go into the water," Johnston said. 

"This can be dangerous even when it looks calm."

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