By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

TREASURE hunters seen scanning Bahamian waters and uncovering artifacts from historic wrecks on the Discovery Channel were given permits to film and research by the Bahamas government.

However, the crews were not permitted to disturb or salvage wreck sites, according to Antiquities Monuments & Museum Corporation Director Keith Tinker, who told The Tribune the team was ordered to return its haul.

The Tribune contacted Dr Tinker after a promotional clip of the season’s second premiere of “Cooper’s Treasure” raised protest from Bahamians on social media.

“We gave the authority for them to come in to film – absolutely no salvage whatsoever, that should not even have been a consideration that they made,” Dr Tinker said.

“My understanding is that they haven’t taken anything, that they were searching and it is something that was authorised. They were supposed to be filming, not disturbing or pulling up anything.”

For the season two premiere, host and treasure hunter Darrel Miklos went to Acklins in a bid to finish the expedition of 1960s NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper, who was said to have plotted 11 wreck sites. Mr Miklos and his crew utilised technology to re-examine the astronaut’s map – purportedly made from space. A key tool in their arsenal was said to be a magnetometer – a sensor that scans the earth’s magnetic field to detect the presence of metals.

In the promotional clip, it is suggested Mr Cooper’s map describes 290 tons of treasure.

The team can be seen sifting through wreck sites,and there is a brief shot of them lifting what appears to be a pipe out of the water and on to their boat.

Yesterday, Mr Tinker said: “We had a senior officer, at times more than one, attached to that crew and on their boat.

“We had our ears and eyes out there. One of our officers was on the boat the entire time they were here.

“It was reported to me they had recovered something down south and I instructed them to return it. The permit they had was just simply to research and film. Apparently they were doing some salvage, and I also watched that clip and share similar concerns.

“I’m supposed to meet with them because they want to continue and I said no, not under those circumstances.”

Mr Miklos’ bid to salvage in Bahamian waters follow’s his father’s track to obtain proper licencing — which was covered by Tribune Business in 2014.

Roger Miklos, an industry veteran, has long-standing ties to the Bahamas, having met and married his wife here and lived here for several years in the 1990s.

He first applied for a wreck/salvage licence in the Bahamas in 1993, only for the then-government to put a moratorium on such activities.

But, when the outgoing Ingraham administration seemingly lifted the moratorium in 2012, Roger Miklos “rushed back” with his new application only to be stalled again.

In 2014, his pursuit drew some controversy when Tribune Business obtained a letter from AMMC Chairman Courtney Strachan to the Key West-based applicant.

In the letter, Mr Strachan promised the elder Miklos to “personally pursue” then Prime Minister Perry Christie for an approval if a $22 million donation to the Historic Bahamas Foundation was secured.

However, Mr Strachan later denied that underwater salvage/exploration licence approvals were being tied to multi-million dollar donations to preserve historic Bahamian sites.