Found an underwater camera: need help finding owner

[tcpip95]

Quite the crazy story here....

We were down in Islamorada, FL last week with the boat diving Alligator Reef. As I'm driving the boat out to the reef, I spot something floating in the water. I motor over and it's a Vivitar camera in a watertight case (about the same size as my GoPro Hero 3). I plucked it out of the water and it's in full working condition (battery was dead). I pulled the memory card out and stuck it in my laptop and was able to download all the photos and videos. Unfortunately there was nothing that I could use to tell me names, phone numbers, etc.

From the images I came up with the following:

- they were on a Disney cruise from Jan 2nd - Jan 10th 2015 (yes, that's correct - 2015). The camera didn't look like it was in the water that long.
- they were scuba divers. Plenty of underwater photos.
- it appears that they were a family of 3 generations on the cruise (kids, parents, and grandparents).
- they visited Ocho Rios (Dunn River Falls pics) and a Stingray City somewhere near where the boat docked.

We've posted pics to FB to try and spread the word, and it's getting around, but thought I'd try here directly.

I'm on a flight cross country right now but will see if I can find the pic of the family and maybe somebody will recognize them.

 

[The Chairman]

We've done this before. Post some of the pics, especially of the people and others might recognize them. There was a camera that was lost in Bonaire and recovered in Key West that was returned to the rightful owner here. Even made the national news and the traffic kind of broke us. Good times.

 

[T.C.]

Would it be difficult to download all the pictures to a cloud service like Dropbox?

Then, you could just share the link. More pictures may speed the process, and make spreading the word easier, as well as easing your workload in sharing the pictures.

 

[tcpip95]

These are really the only photos that show faces; all the rest are videos of reefs, dive spots, etc.

 

[T.C.]

These are really the only photos that show faces; all the rest are videos of reefs, dive spots, etc.

Ok. Well, I was hoping to look through and find some information about the cruise ship, destinations and background clues.

I know I won't recognize them, but I think I could find more details. My flights back to the States have been delayed 72 hours and I have literally nothing to do, and would like a good challenge.

 

[tcpip95]

Here's a zip file of the photos. I'll see what I can do with the videos.

UPDATE: Can't seem to post the zip file. It's only 26 MB so it should post. I'll keep trying. Here's another still photo. The stingrays are definitely taken at Disney's Castaway Cay's Stingray Adventure (their private island in the Bahamas). Looking at the duration of the photo dates, it appears that it was a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise that did Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Castaway Cay, and probably sailed from Port Canaveral (the little girl has a space shuttle charm around her neck in one of the videos).

Here's a link to the photos: Dropbox - 100MEDIA.zip

 

[T.C.]

View attachment 446002 Here's a zip file of the photos. I'll see what I can do with the videos.

UPDATE: Can't seem to post the zip file. It's only 26 MB so it should post. I'll keep trying. Here's another still photo. The stingrays are definitely taken at Disney's Castaway Cay's Stingray Adventure (their private island in the Bahamas). Looking at the duration of the photo dates, it appears that it was a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise that did Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Castaway Cay, and probably sailed from Port Canaveral (the little girl has a space shuttle charm around her neck in one of the videos).

Here's a link to the photos: Dropbox - 100MEDIA.zip

Thanks! You're very observant.

 

[tcpip95]

Thanks! You're very observant.

Still trying to upload the videos to my dropbox. It's failing (losing connection; trying to send from the hotel room and it's 1GB). I'll keep trying.

 

[T.C.]

Still trying to upload the videos to my dropbox. It's failing (losing connection; trying to send from the hotel room and it's 1GB). I'll keep trying.

Please do. Not sure, but is that all the still pictures?

What I've ascertained:
The ship was the Disney Fantasy, based on the configuration of the three radar domes over the bridge. The similar Disney Dream only has two radar domes.

I think that we can discard the dates and times in the metadata. The times don't match to the background outdoor light conditions, so likely the owner did not set the time, and with that, likely that they did not input the date. However, as the background of one photo indicates snow, this can't be discarded that the dates are correct and the time not set. (Slim Possibility; they live in Terra Del Fuego; get lots of sun in the N. Hemisphere winter, and the times are right. It's a non-zero probability. )This also matches your observation that the camera wasn't in the water that long.

I'm going to work with the two land shots to try to enhance them and get a look at that newspaper.

Inconsistency: How would a camera that was last shooting pictures in the Bahamas and S. Florida get to Islamorada? The Gulf Stream doesn't run that way. Possibly they took an extended vacation to the Keys and lost it.

 

[T.C.]

Some more observations and things learned:
Assuming they did leave Port Canaveral- very likely, as this is a common location for Disney Cruises, they did the 7-Night Western Caribbean Disney Cruise. This is the only cruise that goes to Jamaica (Dunn's River Falls), does a Sea Day, then goes to Castaway Cay. There has been only two sail dates this year for Disney Fantasy, the 6th and 20th of January- assumption being that the camera was recently lost. This also fits the snow seen in the background of the pictures shot before the trip.

That means that their previous stop was Grand Cayman, where the majority of the dive pictures were shot. A good starting point is that I believe the dive boat in the picture is the Reef Spirit operated by Red Sail Sports in Grand Cayman. This is based on the large "REEF" visible on their boat, and in the picture, as well as the bald man in the red shirt, who is visible in other promotional materials, and I believe may be their Boat Captain Mark

This is the picture from the camera that tcpip95 found.


Boat far left has the bald man and the "REEF" visible.

I have emailed them the picture and asked them to let me know if they recognize the boat, the crewman, or, even better, the divers. If the recognize the crewman, we can hopefully place the day, and request them to review manifests- which would contain the diver's names, and their booking records should contain them arriving on the Fantasy on one of two days. Correlation would then give a starting point to contact someone.