GoPro camera recovered after six years under water in Hawaii

Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A volunteer assisting with an underwater clean-up operation in Hawaii discovered a GoPro camera with a memory card that still worked after six years on the bottom of the ocean.

Rose Zhang, a volunteer with the nonprofit Ocean Defenders Alliance, said she was participating in a clean-up operation near the Spitting Caves on the South Side of Oahu when she came across a GoPro camera that was still sealed in its waterproof case.

Zhang discovered the files on the memory card still worked, and she posted the last video from the camera to Facebook in the hopes of finding its owner.

The video showed the camera's owner Nainoa Kamai, and some friends jumping into the water from the Spitting Caves rocks in 2014, when he was 18.

"I started getting a bunch of messages of this video of me from seven years ago and I was like what is this? I clicked on it and I was like, 'No way somebody found the GoPro,'" Kamai told KHON-TV.

Kamai said the camera had been a gift from his mother just a few days before he lost it.

Zhang visited Kamai's work Jan. 19 to return the camera in person.

Kamai said he has since gotten a replacement GoPro, but he is planning to get a new battery for the old camera to see if it still works after six years under water.