Lobster pot tag washes up 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic... two decades after being lost in Perfect Storm that inspired film

A tag from a lobster pot lost two decades ago in what came to be known as 'The Perfect Storm' has washed up 3,000 miles away in Ireland.

The pot that held the tag with Richard Figueiredo's name on it was one of hundreds he lost when the storm struck off Cohasset, Massachusetts, in 1991.

Rosemary Hill, of Waterville, County Kerry, found the tag on a beach last year.



Amazing find: A lobster pot tag belonging to Richard Figueiredo that was lost in the Perfect Storm of 1991 was washed up in Ireland

Last week she decided to try to contact Mr Figueiredo and found him through the Facebook account of his son Rich.

Oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer told The Patriot Ledger newspaper that the tag's 20-year drift is unusually long.

Mr Ebbesmeyer, who studies flotsam and ocean currents, said the pot and tag may have been buried in offshore mud before drifting south off the U.S. Atlantic coast and then getting caught the in eastward Gulf Stream.

He added that the tag then probably drifted south again into the circular Subtropical Gyre current in the mid-Atlantic, making six three-year loops before it again caught the Gulf Stream toward Ireland.

Beachcomber: Rosemary Hill at the spot in County Kerry where she found the tag

Coast to coast: The tag would have made several loops as it drifted with a leading oceanographer saying it may have clocked up 50,000 miles

He believes in total it could have drifted 50,000 miles.

Miss Hill, 39, loves beachcombing and said that this is the first time she’s ever traced a buoy or other piece of maritime flotsam to its owner.

She told The Patriot Ledger she saw the orange tag amid clumps of seaweed on a stroll last year.

She added it to other beach souvenirs and then forgot about it until last week.

Hollywood version: George Clooney with Mark Wahlberg in the 2000 movie Perfect Storm

'I looked at it again and thought, "Why not try to find the owner?"' she said. 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.'

Mr Figueiredo and Miss Hill spoke last Thursday.

She said she would mail the tag to him, but he wants her to keep it.

He said: 'The meaning it has over there is what matters.

'I am honored that she has put so much enthusiasm into this. What’s happening now is a gift to me.'

The storm was made famous by Sebastian Junger's book The Perfect Storm and was made into a Hollywood movie in 2000 starring George Clooney.





