iPhone 7 Survives Two Days at the Bottom of the Ocean

Scuba Diver Iphone Ocean Floor Credit: BBC / Cerys Hearsey
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Of all the things you’d expect to find on the ocean floor, a perfectly functioning iPhone probably isn’t one of them.

But that’s exactly what scuba diver Cerys Hearsey of Essex, England found on the seabed off the coast of Dorset last week, according to a variety of local media reports.

The Apple handset wasn’t just functional, it was still receiving a cellular signal 30 feet underwater. It apparently received a text message as Hearsey, 34, was swimming by it. “We were passing a lobster pot, and on a rock next to it, I noticed something light up,” she told the BBC.

The device, identified as an iPhone 7, was in a waterproof case or bag. But even after two days on the bottom of the ocean, it was still working perfectly fine and had even retained about 84 percent of its battery.

Hearsey said she tossed the iPhone into a dry suit pocket and forgot about it until the end of the day. When she got back on dry land, she opened the iPhone to see if she could track down the owner.

Cerys Hearsey
Image via The Sun / Cerys Hearsey

After firing off a few text messages, the diver received a response from the iPhone owner’s cousin, Rob Smith.

The owner had been visiting from Canada and lost the iPhone on a kayaking trip off the Dorset coast. “We tried diving for it but it was too deep,” Smith told The Sun.

“My cousin had a lot of pictures of his trip on his phone which he thought he wouldn’t see again,” Smith continued.

While the iPhone’s owner was already on a flight back to Canada by the time their device was found, Smith reportedly shipped the device back to his cousin by international mail.

Apple’s iPhone 7 is rated as IP67 water- and dust-resistant. By most measures, that means it’s rated to survive about 30 minutes at shallow depths. The make or model of the waterproof case that the iPhone was housed in isn’t known. But it certainly did its job.

This isn’t the first time an iPhone has survived extreme watery depths. Earlier this year, a diver found an iPhone X in a river. Even after two weeks in that river, the device was still functional and was returned to its owner.

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