Snorkeler Finds Fish Wearing Man's Lost Wedding Ring

A husband who lost his wedding ring while swimming on holiday was surprised to discover that someone else was wearing it; or rather, something else.

Snorkeler Susan Prior was diving off Norfolk Island on Monday when she spotted a sand mullet rocking some very unusual bling.

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Since February, the dedicated conservationist was dismayed when she began noticing some of the some of little fish wearing plastic collars, having become trapped in plastic rings from bottle necks. "Mullet snuffle through the sand looking for food making it so easy for a ring or hair tie to flip over their noses and get stuck," she explained in a blog post.

But this week, she spotted one waring a shiny metallic one, with a lot less algae growth than the ones she had seen previously. Suddenly, she remembered reading a recent post on a local community social media page about "a large man's wedding ring that had gone missing in the bay" and -- while the ring has yet to be retrieved off the fish -- decided to try track down the owner.

"It didn't take long for my suspicion to be confirmed," she wrote. "We now have a poor mullet weighed down with someone's (expensive) gold wedding ring."

The ring, as it turns out. belonged to Nathan Reeves, who had visited the island with wife of two years Suzie Quintal; in fact, he had lost it the day before their second wedding anniversary.

"He tried to look for it and then broke the news to me and I was not happy," Suzie told Daily Mail Australia. "I always tell him to take it off before he goes for a swim."

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She said she just "spun out" when she heard it had been found — and where.

"I just couldn't believe it," she said. "I've got a few friends on the island and they're pretty adamant that they'll find it."

"People are now trying to source nets, some have got scuba gear. The team in the glass bottom boats are going to have a look - Norfolk's really good like that."

As for Prior, she is trying to take the positives from the situation, in that it might raise awareness of the effort to keep the ocean litter free — and maybe rescue the bejeweled mullet, who will almost certainly die when he outgrows the ring.

Norfolk Island Reef

"Always trying to find the positives of any given situation, I see this as an incentive to encourage someone to relieve the poor fish of its handicap," she wrote. "If the ring had been boring plastic that incentive wouldn't exist. I also see this as a great opportunity to raise awareness about this issue."

She reminded people to snip the rings off plastic bottles when disposing of them, and to make sure hair ties are on tight and do not float away when swimming.

"As for the poor mullet with the gold collar. Here's hoping we can deliver a happy ending to his story and for the owner of the wedding ring!" she concluded. "The mullet has a life to live and it's only fair he gets to live it."

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