BOSTON, Massachusetts (14 Mar 2005) -- The United States federal government has busted ringleaders of a scuba diving group called the Boston Sea Rovers for robbing underwater grave sites and stealing shipwreck artifacts. The feds named David Morton, Eric Takakjian, Steve Gatto, Tom Packer, Tom Murray, and Steve Scheuer of the Boston Sea Rovers in a lawsuit that clearly demonstrates the government's new 'get tough' policy against scuba diving grave robbers and thieves. Despite being warned by the U.S. Coast Guard not to disrupt or remove anything from the wreck of the Lightship Nantucket, the divers repeatedly pillaged artifacts from the shipwreck over a period of six years, ruining a historically significant vessel and depriving other divers of the opportunity to witness the spectacle of the Lightship Nantucket as a fully protected underwater museum. The stolen artifacts include the ship's huge 1,200 pound bronze bell--considered the ultimate prize by scuba diving thieves--and the helm, portholes, telegraph, signal light and binnacle. The Lightship Nantucket sank in 1934 after it was rammed in heavy fog by the SS Olympic, a British luxury liner. Four crew of the Nantucket, a lightship anchored offshore to warn ships they were approaching the Nantucket Shoals, went down with the ship. Three people died aboard the British liner. Shipwreck artifacts and underwater grave sites are strictly protected by the National Historic Preservation Act, a law supported by the vast majority of the global scuba diving community. But a small and fanatical segment of the diving public led mostly by deep-diving technical divers and underwater photographers have aggressively opposed government regulations aimed at protecting shipwrecks as well as marine wildlife. Recently, divers who steal artifacts from shipwrecks have adopted the same tactics utilized by the dive industry to greenwash commercial exploitation of marine wildlife. Under the guise of non-profits that trumpet the benefits of museum displays and web sites that chronicle artifacts, scuba diving thieves posing as marine archaeologists have been looting underwater grave sites and shipwrecks throughout the world, especially in the US, Canada and the UK. But government authorities charged with the responsibility of protecting historical shipwreck sites tell a different story of ego-driven wreck divers competing with each other for dive industry notoriety, bragging rights and internet auction sales. In this case, the divers' "personal ambitions led them to run roughshod over the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act," a Justice Department maritime attorney told reporters. CDNN Technical Diving Editor Nathan Parry-Davies was even more abrupt. "Shipwreck thieves represent the most unsavory and despicable element in the world scuba diving community--their thefts, which are widely endorsed and promoted by the scuba diving industry, make us all look bad ," said Parry-Davies. | | 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. "People such as David Morton, Eric Takakjian, Brad Sheard and Leigh Bishop who pillage shipwrecks are worse than uneducated coastal villagers who dynamite coral reefs," he added. "Both cause terrible destruction and deprive future generations of the opportunity to witness the awe-inspiring spectacle of undisturbed natural and historical undersea sites. "But dynamite fishing stems from ignorance," Parry-Davies said. "Robbing underwater grave sites and looting shipwrecks stems from greed." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKFROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN Despite 'take pictures, leave only bubbles' green-wash, a small but strident group of wreck diving looters steal artifacts from shipwrecks under the guise of 'archaeological exploration', and 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 shipwreck looters from exploiting and destroying sunken ships for their personal coffee table displays, internet self-promotion schemes 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 NOW |
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