For lobstermen in Maine, lost gear is a frustrating reality of the job.

Buoy lines are always getting ripped apart by big oil tankers and cruise ships, which makes it extremely difficult to find the traps on the bottom of the ocean, plus the buoys are almost never found once they go adrift.

Every now and then a fellow lobstermen will find a stray buoy and return it to its owner, but for the most part they either wind up as lawn ornaments for beach scavengers or are just simply lost forever.

Photo from kirstenuhler.com.

Lately though, thanks to the power of social media, lobstermen in the Gulf of Maine have been able to trace their lost gear all the way across the Atlantic to countries like Scotland, Ireland, and England.

On a Facebook page called “Maine Lobster Boats,” various pictures have been shared of the found gear in search of the original owners.

Here are the pictures with the posted captions included:

Any of that gear look familiar to anyone?