Legal Definitions - lagend

The term lagend refers to goods or property that have been intentionally sunk in the sea but are marked with a buoy, beacon, or other indicator so that they can be found and retrieved at a later time. It is synonymous with the term lagan. Unlike goods that are simply lost at sea (flotsam) or thrown overboard to lighten a ship (jetsam), lagend implies a deliberate act of sinking with a clear intent for future recovery.

• Example 1: Salvage Operation

  A shipping company is transporting highly specialized, expensive drilling equipment across the ocean. During a severe storm, the captain determines that certain non-essential but valuable components must be temporarily removed from the deck to stabilize the vessel. Instead of simply jettisoning them, the crew carefully attaches GPS-enabled buoys to these components before lowering them into a relatively shallow, charted area of the seabed. The company plans to dispatch a salvage vessel to retrieve these items once the storm has passed and the ship reaches port. These marked, sunken components are considered lagend because they were deliberately submerged with a clear intention and means for later recovery.

• Example 2: Underwater Art Installation

  An environmental artist plans to create an underwater sculpture garden to promote marine conservation. Before a public exhibition, several large, intricate sculptures are carefully lowered to the seabed in a designated area. Each sculpture has a small, biodegradable buoy attached to it, which floats to the surface and transmits a signal, allowing divers and support teams to precisely locate and monitor the artworks. These intentionally sunken and marked sculptures, awaiting their official unveiling and potential future relocation, are examples of lagend.

• Example 3: Scientific Research Equipment Deployment

  An oceanographic research institute is deploying a sophisticated array of sensors to monitor deep-sea currents and marine life over several months. To ensure the equipment's safety during deployment and its precise retrieval, the researchers attach an acoustic beacon and a brightly colored, pressure-resistant buoy to the main anchor point of the array before sinking it to the ocean floor. This allows them to track its exact location and retrieve it with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at the end of the study period. The sensor array, having been intentionally sunk but clearly marked for later recovery, constitutes lagend.