CLAYTON, N.Y. (24 Feb 2003) -- A scuba diver who salvaged an anchor from the St. Lawrence River off Clayton in October doesn't want to put his treasure back, but he might have to. Heinz W. Wahl, who owns French Creek Marina with his father, Wilburt C., recovered the 6,000-pound anchor from the river and now has it displayed with many other anchors at the marina. "Why would I put it back?" Mr. Wahl asked Friday. "It's not an artifact. It's an anchor." Charles E. Vandrei, a historic preservation officer for the state Department of Environmental Conservation and a member of a committee assigned to consider the legality of salvage operations, said the attorney general's office has been asked to investigate avenues for returning the anchor to its watery home. "Things like this need to be pursued to make sure it doesn't happen again," Mr. Vandrei said. "This anchor may not be of particular historical significance, but what happens if the next time it's a British or American Revolutionary War ship?" Mr. Vandrei said the DEC, the New York State Museum, the state Office of General Services, the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the state Department of State, and the New York State Canal Corp. each has a representative on the state Underwater Resources Working Group. He said the bottoms of bodies of water belong to the state and the objects that sit on those bottoms are also generally considered possessions of the state. "You wouldn't go onto your neighbor's property and take something," Mr. Vandrei said. He said there are exceptions to this: for example, if a person's boat sank recently. These issues are usually considered on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Wahl said he does not know where the anchor came from. It was rumored to have belonged to the Maggie L., which sank near where the anchor was discovered. Mr. Wahl said the anchor is much too large to have belonged to the Maggie L. Christina B. Rieth, the associate director of the cultural resource program at the State Museum and its representative to the group, said she believes the anchor is more than 50 years old because of certain markings. "Artifacts that are more than 50 years old require a permit to be removed, and the Wahls did not have that permit," she said. She said she would not hazard a guess on the age of the anchor until she sees it in person. Mr. Wahl said he has received a letter from the State Museum asking him about the anchor, but he has not received any communication telling him to return it. "I don't really see the issue," Mr. Wahl said. "I'm really doing the community a service." He said he has the anchor on display for no charge in a community that values nautical equipment. "Why would they have me take the anchor back and bury it in the mud in the middle of the channel with the fluke barely sticking out?" he asked. "Who benefits from that?" | | Partners in crime: Grave robbers Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard. Following the lead of dive industry-endorsed shipwreck looters Bishop and Sheard, scuba diving thieves around the world are destroying wrecks for bragging rights, coffee table displays and internet auction profits that amount to a fraction of the revenue shipwrecks can generate as fully protected underwater museums. Jennifer L. Meicht, spokeswoman for the state Office of General Services, said her office sent Mr. Wahl a letter telling him that removing the anchor was in violation of several laws, but received no formal response. Mr. Wahl said the issue probably would have been left at that if not for what he described as uninformed complaints from other divers. "I called them because basically I've found that wreck preservation is something that should be done," said Kyle Couchman, a diver from Ithaca. "I'm really against people like Heinz who, instead of marking a site, take it out, and that's one less thing for divers to see." Mr. Couchman is a member of the New York Divers Association, but that group had taken no stance on the issue as of Friday. Mr. Vandrei said he does not know how long it will take for the attorney general's office to decide whether it will pursue the issue. SOURCE - Watertown Daily NewsFROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN Scuba looters around the world aggressively compete for bragging rights, product endorsements and profits from the sales of stolen artifacts that are now on a par with those from smuggling humans and drugs. "The vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "For scuba divers, every shipwreck is an underwater museum to be fully protected for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations of divers who will dive deeper and longer thanks to ongoing improvements in diving technology ," Allard added. "It is absolutely imperative that the global scuba diving community, archaeologists, coast guards, police and tax authorities act now to prevent Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, David Morton (of the Boston Sea Rovers) and other shipwreck looters from exploiting and destroying sunken ships for their personal coffee table displays, internet self-promotion schemes, commercial 'museum' profits and tax-evasion scams." CYBER DIVER ALERT | If you have information pertaining to the theft and/or sale of wreck artifacts, or desecration of underwater grave sites by Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, organized crime gangs or anyone else, please contact CDNN immediately and your information will be passed along to appropriate authorities. REPORT SCUBA LOOTER |
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