When Dick De Bruin lost his camera in the waters of Aruba, he would have never in his wildest dreams believed that he would not only get it back one day, but that it would contain footage filmed by the most unlikely photographer - a sea turtle!

The saga of the Dutchman's bright red camera began about six months ago, when the Navy Sergeant was examining an underwater shipwreck off the coast of Aruba. The camera slipped from his hand and drifted away, floating for two months before being picked up by a turtle, which mistook it for food.

That's when things got interesting - As the turtle tried to shake off the camera, it inadvertently switched it on and dragged it along with him, videotaping the underwater scene for at least five minutes, before getting rid of it.

The story gets even better! After months of drifting around in the ocean currents, the bright red camera ended up on the shores of Key West, 1,100 miles away, where Paul Sculz found it, covered with six months of crusty sea growth, but otherwise in good condition, thanks to its waterproof plastic case.

Determined to get the camera back to its owners, the coast guard turned detective. He first posted some of the pictures from the camera on websites frequented by scuba divers to get an idea of their location. Once he found out it was in Aruba, he posted some pictures of the kids from the camera on to a travel website, where they were seen by someone who recognized them and led him to the owner of the camera.

Mr. De Bruin said that he was delighted to have his camera back, especially with all the extra video. As for the unknown turtle photographer - His accidental footage has been viewed over half a million times on YouTube and the numbers are only growing!

sources:treehugger.com, dailymail.co.uk,