Scuba diver finds newlywed's lost wedding ring in Great Barrier Reef

A newlywed who lost his wedding ring while snorkelling during his honeymoon in Australia has been reunited with after it was miraculously found by a scuba diver.

Eirian Evans and his new bride Bethan were enjoying their scuba diving holidays when he lost his silver wedding ring while snorkelling off Green Island in Cairns.

"Because the ring was new and I'm not used to wearing rings, I had been playing with it non-stop since our wedding day," explained Eirian, from Cardiff

"I got out of the sea and went to fiddle with it and realised it had gone. I was absolutely gutted as I thought I'd lost it forever."

The couple asked the staff from their diving expedition to dive down to find it but after several hours of searching for the piece of jewellery along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef, they had no luck finding it. The couple had to return back to the UK without it but they left their contact details with the scuba diving school.

Days later, Eirian received an email from the scuba company saying that the wedding ring had been found and was on its way back to the UK. A tourist had taken the same snorkelling expedition several days later when he spotted the ring lodged in coral on the seabed.

He handed it in to staff at the Ocean Free diving school and they sent it back to the couple on the other side of the world.

"They asked me to leave my contact details with them but I thought they were humouring me. I was convinced I would never see it again," Eirian said about the scuba diving school.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked when I got the email from the diving company saying someone had found it. I couldn't believe it."

The couple got married on 15th June, 2013 before heading off on their dream honeymoon in Australia which included snorkelling and scuba diving adventures in the Great Barrier Reef.

"It's truly amazing the ring survived, especially because fish often eat shiny or sparkly objects mistakenly for food," said Taryn Agiun, the co-owner of Ocean Free diving school. It's a beautiful omen to their marriage, which I think shows they are meant to be together forever."

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and it is a hotspot for scuba diving holidays. The area is made up of 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands and spans an area of 344,400 square kilometres.

More than a thousand different marine species can be found whilst enjoy scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, including Mandarin fishes, manta rays, tiger sharks, various species of turtles, turtle-headed sea snakes, humpback whales, spinner dolphins, minke whales and an array of bold and colourful coral and sea plants.