Leave your dreams of finding wealth in buried treasure on the shore. The Florida Division of Historical Resources has proposed new regulations on commercial exploration of sunken ships and treasure hunters across the southeast are not happy.
"If the state proceeds with the new rule it will put us out of business," said Doug Pope, a 22-year veteran salvage hunter.
The new rule, an amendment to the Florida Administrative Code, creates permits for exploring and salvaging historic shipwrecks on state controlled submerged lands. The permits replace the current contract system. The final hearing on the rule was held Monday at Guana.
There, treasure hunters from across the southeast voiced disapproval of the rule, and the hearing process.
"I strongly protest the location of this hearing," said salvage captain John Brandon. Brandon said Guana is too far from the Florida Keys, where many salvage operations are headquartered.
Brandon also believes the new rule’s requirement that a qualified archeologist be present during excavation is a tremendous burden on private alvage hunters.
"The rules don’t seem to be based on the reality of working in the ocean," Brandon said.
Pope said having an archeologist on board will cost $300 to $600 a day. Under the old rules, he said, salvage hunters stopped excavating when they found something and contacted the state and an archeologist was brought out.
Ryan Wheeler, chief of the Bureau of Archeological Research, said the new rule was not designed to drive the private sector out of business.
"The last time these rules were looked at was in 1987," he said. "That’s a pretty long time. We were asked to review the rule to make it clearer what was going to be expected."
More than 20 people spoke at the hearing. Wheeler said considering all the comments the bureau has received about the new rule, there will likely be changes made.
"If we propose [more] changes, we anticipate having another hearing," Wheeler said.
Pope said this is the first time the industry has gotten together to fight for something like this.
"I would like to see the state continue to comply with the rules we’ve been working with all these years," he said. "They should live up to their agreement and include our community in it. If they enact this, I guarantee we will file a lawsuit against the state of Florida."
December 5th 2008 - 11:32AM