Using a shovel enchanted with Fortune on sand in an ocean or river biome has a chance to yield sunken treasure. This can include rare loot like sponges and a Message in a Bottle.

Rewards

Each level of Fortune increases the chance of receiving a sunken treasure item from a sand block; Fortune I yields a 10% chance, Fortune II yields a 26% chance, and Fortune III yields a 48% chance. Below is the distribution of items from a sand block that contains sunken treasure.

In Java Edition, each sunken treasure contains 1 item stacks, with the following distribution:

Item Stack Size [FN 1] Weight [FN 2] Chance [FN 3] Avg.
per chest
[FN 4]
Avg. # chests
to search
[FN 5]
 Bone 11729⁄999917.3%0.1735.8
File:ParallelItemSprite message-in-a-bottle.pngMessage In A Bottle 11152⁄999911.5%0.1158.7
 Prismarine Crystals 1576⁄99995.8%0.05817.4
File:ParallelItemSprite waders.pngWaders 1300⁄99993.0%0.03033.3
 Bottle o' Enchanting 1288⁄99992.9%0.02934.7
 Gold Ingot 1288⁄99992.9%0.02934.7
 Leather Boots 1250⁄99992.5%0.02540.0
File:ParallelItemSprite treasure-chest.pngTreasure Chest 158⁄99990.6%0.006172.4
  1. ↑ The size of stacks (or for unstackable items, number) of this item on any given roll.
  2. ↑ The weight of this item relative to other items in the pool.
  3. ↑ The odds of finding any of this item in a single chest.
  4. ↑ The number of items expected per chest, averaged over a large number of chests.
  5. ↑ The average number of chests the player should expect to search to find any of this item.