MOREHEAD CITY, North Carolina (18 Apr 2005) -- In the wake of recent busts of scuba divers stealing artifacts from protected historical shipwreck sites, experts have criticized North Carolina's plan to allow recreational divers to explore wreckage thought to be Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. It's all about boosting tourism said one critic of the program who believes the site should be fully protected while archaeologists continue to study artifacts that could provide irrefutable evidence the shipwreck is the Queen Anne's Revenge. A North Carolina state official told CDNN a new program called 'Dive Down' will not only open the wreck site to more than 300 divers annually, but because each diver will have to pay local dive shops $500 to explore the shipwreck, more than $150,000 will be pumped into the local economy. But Mark Daniel, who helped discover the shipwreck in 1996, and Donny Hamilton, a renowned archaeologist at Texas A&M, harshly criticized state officials for not doing enough to protect the shipwreck and for opening it to recreational scuba divers. "I know divers who work only at night," Daniel told reporters. "There are people like that." While Daniel and others believe the ship is vulnerable to 'finders keepers' divers such as Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard who loot shipwrecks for bragging rights, dive industry notoriety and tax-free profits concealed from authorities via anonymous internet auction sales, North Carolina officials defended the program saying the U.S. Coast Guard is capable of protecting the site. "Sure. That's like placing a buoy over the wreck with a big billboard that reads 'Free Artifacts'", said a veteran wreck diver who earns more than $50,000 annually selling stolen shipwreck artifacts on eBay. "Only five hundred bucks for a guided tour of the exact location of the artifacts," he added. "Hell, I'll pay twice that and still quadruple my investment." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | | 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. FROM 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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