A bird like this cormorant was the type found with the long-lost camera around its neck. (Photo: Wikimedia)

A couple men fishing in Canada documenting some of their catches thought their photo evidence was lost for good when the camera was dropped into the water. Eight months later though, someone else found the camera around the neck of the bird and the photos, still intact, were used to locate the owner through social and traditional media.

CBC reported Karen Gwillim seeing a bird struggling on a bridge when she was driving. Pulling over, she saw there was a silver camera around its neck. Although one might have expected the bird to fly away, it stayed for Gwillim to take off the camera and then left.

“I think he was relieved to have something that heavy removed,” she said to CBC. “He seemed all right.”

The story doesn’t stop there. She found there were 200-plus pictures intact on the camera.

“Lots of fishing pictures, giant fish, guys with fish, mostly,” Gwillim said of the camera’s contents, but there were some wedding photos on there as well.

Figuring someone might want this back and recognizing the area in the photos as relatively local, she posted them on Facebook in an effort to seek out the owner. Nothing happened. That is until several weeks later when Gwillim went on a local news show and was spotted by one of the men in the photos.

Frank Resendes was that man and here’s how he described the event that took place eight months ago:

“He’s going to help his buddy land this fish so he’s getting closer to the edge of the water, almost falls into the water and that jars the camera out of his pocket and it falls into the canal never to be seen again,” Resendes said. “It just disappears.”

Screenshot of the Facebook album posted seeking out the owners of the camera. (Image via CBC)

CBC reported that the man who rightfully owned the pictures and Gwillim were expected to meet soon.

And that is your afternoon tale of how social media helped save the day, which is pretty good considering some in the U.K. unleashing personal rants on social media have landed in jail recently.

Listen to CBC’s report:

If you liked this story, check out another reported on by TheBlaze where an Austin photographer snapped a photo of a couple getting engaged and social media helped locate them so they could obtain copies of their special moment.

This story has been updated to correct a typo. 

(H/T: Gizmodo)