🔗 1997 Lego Spill

🔗 Environment 🔗 Disaster management 🔗 Lego 🔗 Cornwall

A maritime incident occurred on 13 February 1997 when a rogue wave struck the German-registered container ship Tokio Express off the coast of Land's End, Cornwall, United Kingdom, causing 62 containers to fall overboard. One container held approximately 4.8 million Lego pieces, primarily from sea-themed sets such as Lego Aquazone and Lego Pirates. The spilled pieces have washed ashore on coastlines across the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, and as far as Australia, becoming a cultural phenomenon and an unintentional case study in ocean currents and marine plastic pollution.