Can we take things from the ocean?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Wrecks depend on where you are. US Great Lakes - freshwater - we have wooden wrecks from the mid-1800s that are still intact, although they are deteriorating. It’s generally illegal to remove anything from a wreck, although some are given permission to remove items. It’s different if rights to a wreck don’t belong to the state.
 
I am a new diver. I just went on my first ocean dive post certification and while I was diving found a dead sand dollar and a Sheepshead fish jaw with teeth. I was tempted to bring them ashore but showed my husband and left them because I thought we couldn't take anything.

To the OP - welcome to diving! And you are doing the right thing by trying to read the room. I'm sure that you understand by now that local cultural norms and behavior vary widely underwater just as they do topside.

My opinion is that it's fine to take an empty shell. I mean, there are billions of these in the ocean, and if you find something pretty that you would like, why not take it? It enhances your enjoyment of the undersea world.

Yes, there are purists who feel that removing ANYTHING disturbs the local micro environment and should be forbidden. If you really feel that way, then definitely start by haranguing people who fly to tropical dive vacations, take cruises or eat meat, all of which have environmental impacts far beyond picking up a shell from the floor of the ocean.
 
It's a somewhat controversial topic, but since you seem to be implying malice in a behavior that is extremely common in my area (NYC wreck diving), let me politely present a counter argument. Our wrecks are rapidly dissolving into piles of rust on the ocean floor. So some people feel that removing and conserving artifacts allows these historic wrecks to speak to many more people than if they were to just remain buried in the sand or hidden under tons of collapsing steel.

I personally usually just take pictures, but the few pieces that I have mean a lot to me, and are displayed where non-divers can hear their story.

Casualties of warfare have different considerations, as do wrecks that are owned by someone. I'm not an expert on that type of law.

i did not mean to "imply" anything. i meant it to be a very direct accusation. obviously not at you or others like you.

i agree if a wreck site has all but disappeared, its historical contants should be salvaged, documented, and displayed (if possible) for others to see. thank you for doing your part.

unfortunately, in the great lakes and other cold fresh water lakes where there are countless wrecks stick intact, there has been decades of abuse and out right illegal theft of many of these artifacts.

divers have taken bells, compass, mirrors, wheels (helm), dishes, cutlery, and god knows what else for their own selfish enjoyment.

i have even had conversations with well known divers / shop owners who laugh at the fact that they have participated in these activities and seem to try to justify their behavior.
 
i did not mean to "imply" anything. i meant it to be a very direct accusation. obviously not at you or others like you.

Got it, thanks!

Just like the norms of behavior can be very different in Times Square and in remote Himalayan villages, the standards of diving vary widely.

And of course, online communication is notorious for missing nuance. :)

 
I once had a diver, used to taking items off US East coat wrecks, ask me what he could take from wrecks on the Great Lakes. Wasn’t happy when told “nothing.”

For over the top shipwreck looting, there is the case of the Alvin Clark, a wooden sailing shipwreck on the Great Lakes, that was raised in the late 1960s, I believe. It would have taken too much money to preserve it and was let to rot. The bits that were left after perhaps 20 years above water were thrown away. The Great Lakes wreck preservation movement seems to have really gotten going in the 1980s.
 
that I could have taken my finds for a souvenir. Is this true?

Yes, it's true. The times when it's not it's typically illegal. For example, in FL it's illegal to possess queen conch shell "having an off-center hole larger than 1/16 inch in diameter through its spire". An empty shell, that does not meet that criteria, is fine to take.
 
As you've probably realized, the answer is "it depends." Where I dive, I get "bycatch" of seaweed hung up in my gear all the time. (Think detached mats of floating seaweed you swim through.) Even the occasional animal that "hitched a ride" inadvertently comes out of the water. Not much you can do about that.

When I was in my late teens and had just learned to dive, I picked up all kinds of junk. Some shells, bottles, etc.. Fast forward 36 years, and I haven't picked anything up in decades and the junk I did pick up is boxed in an attic. Both societal and my personal ethics changed over time, but more importantly I should have asked myself "do I really want this in 36 years?" If the answer is no, leave it there.

Today the only thing I'd pick up is garbage, and only then if nothing visible has "colonized" it yet. E.g., if it's got barnacles, I leave it.
 
I'm a marine aquarist and I have on occasion brought back a reef fish or two from the Caribbean for my aquariums. I know the exact fish I'm going to collect and am well prepared to keep them alive and safely transported. I've been doing this for decades. I also collect local NJ Gulf Stream tropical strays, fish that will die in October when water temps drop. An occasional woke diver will criticize me, just before ordering a grouper sandwich.

These days flight rules make it difficult to bring fish back, though not impossible. Dive operators almost uniformly forbid this kind of thing, so I do it solo. I can understand their position when I see the hordes of clumsy tourist divers who would strip the bottoms bare if allowed. Ignorant people will blather on about (very limited) captive bred fish, but there is nothing like a wild caught specimen that you have captured, maintained while in the island, and carefully brought back. In 42 years I've never lost a fish while transporting it. I still have fish I collected 10 years ago, but I just set up a new large aquarium and have a short list, two fish I'll be collecting this winter.
 

Back
Top Bottom