I take underwater artifacts...

[bonehunter]

FLRiverDiver, not everything I find ends up in a museum 8^), I am a collector and enjoy my collection. I do however follow the rules set by the state. Those rules require that I report what I find for examination by the state if they choose. I am glad to do this as I would not have known what some of the items I have found were, if they were not identified by a paleontologist. If I find something significant, it is much more appealing to me to have it placed in a museum or university for display or study than to have it mis identified sitting on my shelf. When I first started diving, it was legal to collect artifacts in Florida rivers, that changed a year after I began diving. I heard from a source in a local museum that the powers to be in Florida were mad because some of the divers did not turn in their reports. Instead of realizing that there are always some that do not follow the rules, they chose to ban collecting for everyone. The majority of artifacts collected in rivers have been displaced from their origin and are of no value to archaeologists. They have no real reason to ban the collecting except that they are mad, and like little children, they lash out against the whole dive community instead of keeping better watch on the ones breaking the rules. I'm sure that many fine artifacts will be lost forever because of this law...

 

[txaggie08]

I'll leave it at this, I'm very familiar with Dr. Castro and his stand on treasure hunters, being a former student....


If you'll go back and read carefully I never called ALL amateurs bad people, I called the scum who do things like destroy a wreck to salvage a little gold for personal profit, bad people. The reality is, without the amateurs finding things, the big discoveries would rarely be made. If your picking things up, and understand what you're doing, you're doing anthropological work. If your picking them up to make a buck, I have a serious malfunction with you.

Again my issue is not "I found a cool fossil, had it identified and allowed it to be studied, and now have it framed".


My issue is with " I located a 16th century(maybe, I wasn't quite sure) shipwreck and proceded to take a mailbox, blast the wreck into oblivion, so I could salvage the three dollars in gold and a canon that was left."

 

[plunder]

My issue is with " I located a 16th century(maybe, I wasn't quite sure) shipwreck and proceded to take a mailbox, blast the wreck into oblivion, so I could salvage the three dollars in gold and a canon that was left."

Well its safe to say this is hardly ever happening with the exception of the Mel Fisher Team And like it or not they fought their battle in court and won.

 

[scotthowes]

I think we all know things we should gather and should not.i metal detect i have found things that i dont touch and call some one end of story. But pepole that think i should leave a ring or a bottle are nuts!

 

[txaggie08]

My issue is with " I located a 16th century(maybe, I wasn't quite sure) shipwreck and proceded to take a mailbox, blast the wreck into oblivion, so I could salvage the three dollars in gold and a canon that was left."

Well its safe to say this is hardly ever happening with the exception of the Mel Fisher Team And like it or not they fought their battle in court and won.

Actually that happens A LOT in the Caribbean, to a greater or lesser extent, though Mel certainly pioneered a lot of it. Odyssey isn't innocent in that either....

And mel won some, but not all.

 

[plunder]

I must admit i was disappointed after visiting the Fisher Museum. Almost all artifacts are for sale....It just seemed kind of sad that everything will end up in private collections.

 

[surferguy001]

must have been fun to swim back to shore with a cannonball Lol!

 

[BOHUNTER]

Florida declares all artifacts found in THEIR waters is The States Property. Since the Ban of the IFP, brought on by Judy Bense and her cohersion with her kin folks in the house, we have been screwed. If you take... no lets say your 5 year old Son is playing in the water and finds a nickle sized pieces of Pottery, its in every river in florida, if a FWC officer sees this or catches him removing this he can be charged a misdermeanor, yeah its worth absolutely NOTHING, but removal of it is a criminal act. If you find a 10-12000 year old perfect Suwannee on the bottom which probably just washed out of the back and is in emmaculent condition, you cant rescue it. You have to let Mother Nature destroy it!! If you call the Local Arch they cant touch it either cause it takes a form and some funding to go get it! Lets say they come by and get it... YOU, ME, or any other citizen of Florida or the World will NEVER see this item. If I find it, I will display, give all experience in typology, age and use if I can. See we as citizens have no rights but yet we have respect for the items we save and share them with everyone, I guess the degree process changes people. I call it GREED!

I will be diving in Florida Rivers the rest of my life and I will be collecting artifacts until I cant dive. I would like to have a display of Florida pottery to show at my shows, but so far I havent been able to get any good specimens from land!

I went to our local Arch events here in the panhandle. I had more artifacts and interest than the ENTIRE show they hosted! Their display consisted of a 30 inch box of English Colonial broken stuff..... PITYFUL and a total lack of expression of our treasures.

STEVE

 

[BOHUNTER]

OH yeah... I destroy Florida River bottoms with my hand waves, not dredges or mailboxes, or blowers rakes or shovels of any kind. The State would rather it be left alone and destroyed instead of rescued in Rivers. They already clearly state it has no significant data from the context because no one knows where it came from! But you cant touch it!

 

[diver21085]

hey Oceanmist if you have all that stuff from the ocean do yourself a favor keep it for you dont tell the world