Page 425 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

404 Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook, Second Edition
In the United States, a different type of situation exists. Partially because of the federal nature of the government and issues related to the rights of the states to legislate in maritime matters, the legislation has been complex and confusing. States that have attempted to enact legislation or to restrict the operation of treasure hunters have had cases overruled. The most well- known case is that of Mel Fisher of Treasure Salvors and the wreck of the Atocha. Over the years a number of courts in the United States have ruled in various cases between Treasure Salvors and the State of Florida and the U.S. Federal Government as to who owned the Atocha. In the early 1980s, it was decided that shipwrecks inside state waters and those in federal waters came under the jurisdiction of Admiralty Law. The courts then ruled against the claims of both the State of Florida and the Federal Government that they owned the Atocha site and, provided Treasure Salvors remained salvor in possession of the site giving them title to the wreck. The case of the Atocha is extremely complex, and from the early beginnings in 1962 up to the spectacular auction sales of 1988 and 1989, the site and the work that has been done on the wreck has created an immense debate and consider- able disagreement. Treasure Salvors employed an archaeologist, Duncan Mathewson, who was responsible for the archaeology done on the Atocha and the sister ship Margarita. It is far from clear what archaeology was in fact done on the site, and certainly in the beginning there was very little, however, Mathewson has yet to publish an excavation report so it is diffi- cult to judge. There is no doubt that a large proportion of the artifacts have been sold, and with their sale goes any opportunity to study the material further. In spite of Mathewsons’s claim that “. . . our work on these sites will eventually vindicate my conviction that good archaeology is possible during a commercial salvage effort” (Mathewson, 1986), the artifacts have been sold and as a result archaeologists claim that as archaeology, this work lacks integrity.
The introduction of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act 1987 affirmed the state’s role by declaring that the states were the owners of all abandoned shipwrecks that lay effectively within state waters and that were eligible for inclusion under the National Register of Historic Places. In 1988 only 36 sites were listed in the National Register; by 1998, 579 were included. The passage of Abandoned Shipwreck Act 1987 was a long process, but one that engaged a wide and public debate. For the first time the treasure hunters were exposed to a wide public audience that became aware of the long- term implications of treasure hunting. The debate was an important oppor- tunity to educate the general public on the objectives of “protection.”
In some countries, agreements are made between treasure hunters and the government of the country, permitting the treasure hunters to salvage material from wreck sites on the condition that some proportion of the