These wrecks have been there for 400 years, don't you think Bahamians have had enough time to get organized? You clearly have no clue what kind of money and time shipwreck exploration entails, it is not fast and it is most certainly not cheap. You want to do it yourself huh? I assume then that you have been educated in the sensitive scientific marine survey instruments required to detect the wreck sites? You must already have boats with propwash excavation tools onboard, dredges, metal detectors, dive gear, crew, etc. ? Yep, you sound really smart and well prepared.
You'll need 5 years and several million just to get equipped and trained to do the work, then about $25,000 a day to actually operate. Is your bank account ready for that? Is ANY Bahamians bank account ready for that? You should study FACTS before you make uneducated comments, if it was easy everyone would be doing it, it is NOT easy, nor is it cheap.
Pretty good article, except for the sentence "Apart from the financial loss to the Government and Bahamian people, the pirating of numerous wreck sites is also depriving this nation of its culture and history". What an uninformed statement, the author should fact check. This will be a financial BOOST to the Bahamas, not a loss. Deprtiving this nation of its culture and history? Are you serious? That history is laying on the bottom of the ocean, hidden under 10 feet of sand. Is the Bahamian government going to go dig it out at the cost of millions? Is there a line of archaeologists waiting to spend their money to go rescue these artifacts from the sea? It's an easy answer....NO. The only people capable of recovering and preserving this history are the private sector salvors. With them, the Bahamian people get 25% of the cultural heritage deposited in their waters, in any other scenario they get 0%, and likely have to spend their own tax dollars to go retrieve the material.
What the academic community won't tell you is that under their plan, you (the Bahamians) keep NONE of your heritage. They will hoard it away under the premise that the entire collection must remain together. A few pieces might go on display at a museum or as a tyravelling exhibit, and the rest will be boxed up and stored in a vault. Tell me how THIS plan benefits the Bahamian people? Private Salvors do some of the most accurate and modern archaeology on the planet, especially the ones being considered for leases in Bahamian waters. Academic archaeology lacks the funding to perform much real work these days. This leaves us with two choices; wait until the seas, looters, and fishing trawlers completely destroy the archaeological remains, or allow salvors to rescue, document, and preserve what is left quickly and efficiently. The first option gets you nothing, the second option gets you a lot, for absolutely nothing out of your pockets. I know plenty of wonderful Bahamians, and I know which option they would choose....
It is a sad day when the archaeological community feels that they cannot work wth private sector salvors to rescue nautical history. The TRUTH (though our friend Alexandre Montiero doesn't care to share it with you) is that without private sector salvage, archaeologists would only have about 20% of the material they have to study....the other 80% comes from the private sector. Archaeologists and academics do not have the funding required to excavate and protect 1 shipwreck a year. Any good scientist understands that if you have a small army of private sector people ready to search for and collect data for you on their own dime...you take that help if you have a brain in your head.
What Alexandre forgets is that this shipwreck material is corroding away to nothing on the sea floor. If it is not found, rescued, conserved and stabilized....it WILL absolutely be gone forever. Which is better, private salvors saving shipwrecks for profit and archaeology gets the data and 25% of the artifacts, or archaeologist sit at their desks waiting for funding while the archaeological data dissappears via corrosion, looting and damage from trawling. The answer is easy if you use your brain....
The economic impact to the Bahamas would be substantial and long term. There are plenty of shipwrecks for both archaeologists and salvors, no need to be greedy. There isn't enough museum space for all of the artifacts anyways, and when those artifacts are silver and gold, you have additional costs of storing, securing and protecting them. Who will pay this cost? Alexandre? I think not, the Bahamian people will pay it. Academic Archaeology's antiquated views simply do not work any more. They barely worked when the governen funding was there, now that governments have cut out funding for historical ventures, we are left with two choices. Let our history rot away on the ocean floor, or let talented and well trained salvors recover the history following archaeological guidelines, and sell redundant artifacts to fund their very expensive activities.
There really is only one answer, and its not hard to see if you take the blinders off.
Archaeologist says...
These wrecks have been there for 400 years, don't you think Bahamians have had enough time to get organized? You clearly have no clue what kind of money and time shipwreck exploration entails, it is not fast and it is most certainly not cheap. You want to do it yourself huh? I assume then that you have been educated in the sensitive scientific marine survey instruments required to detect the wreck sites? You must already have boats with propwash excavation tools onboard, dredges, metal detectors, dive gear, crew, etc. ? Yep, you sound really smart and well prepared.
You'll need 5 years and several million just to get equipped and trained to do the work, then about $25,000 a day to actually operate. Is your bank account ready for that? Is ANY Bahamians bank account ready for that? You should study FACTS before you make uneducated comments, if it was easy everyone would be doing it, it is NOT easy, nor is it cheap.
On 'Tremendously sad' if multi-billion opportunity missed
Posted 18 April 2014, 11:33 a.m. Suggest removal
Archaeologist says...
Pretty good article, except for the sentence "Apart from the financial loss to the Government and Bahamian people, the pirating of numerous wreck sites is also depriving this nation of its culture and history". What an uninformed statement, the author should fact check. This will be a financial BOOST to the Bahamas, not a loss. Deprtiving this nation of its culture and history? Are you serious? That history is laying on the bottom of the ocean, hidden under 10 feet of sand. Is the Bahamian government going to go dig it out at the cost of millions? Is there a line of archaeologists waiting to spend their money to go rescue these artifacts from the sea? It's an easy answer....NO. The only people capable of recovering and preserving this history are the private sector salvors. With them, the Bahamian people get 25% of the cultural heritage deposited in their waters, in any other scenario they get 0%, and likely have to spend their own tax dollars to go retrieve the material.
What the academic community won't tell you is that under their plan, you (the Bahamians) keep NONE of your heritage. They will hoard it away under the premise that the entire collection must remain together. A few pieces might go on display at a museum or as a tyravelling exhibit, and the rest will be boxed up and stored in a vault. Tell me how THIS plan benefits the Bahamian people? Private Salvors do some of the most accurate and modern archaeology on the planet, especially the ones being considered for leases in Bahamian waters. Academic archaeology lacks the funding to perform much real work these days. This leaves us with two choices; wait until the seas, looters, and fishing trawlers completely destroy the archaeological remains, or allow salvors to rescue, document, and preserve what is left quickly and efficiently. The first option gets you nothing, the second option gets you a lot, for absolutely nothing out of your pockets. I know plenty of wonderful Bahamians, and I know which option they would choose....
On PM embarking on treasure 'Odyssey'
Posted 19 March 2013, 9:20 a.m. Suggest removal
Archaeologist says...
It is a sad day when the archaeological community feels that they cannot work wth private sector salvors to rescue nautical history. The TRUTH (though our friend Alexandre Montiero doesn't care to share it with you) is that without private sector salvage, archaeologists would only have about 20% of the material they have to study....the other 80% comes from the private sector. Archaeologists and academics do not have the funding required to excavate and protect 1 shipwreck a year. Any good scientist understands that if you have a small army of private sector people ready to search for and collect data for you on their own dime...you take that help if you have a brain in your head.
What Alexandre forgets is that this shipwreck material is corroding away to nothing on the sea floor. If it is not found, rescued, conserved and stabilized....it WILL absolutely be gone forever. Which is better, private salvors saving shipwrecks for profit and archaeology gets the data and 25% of the artifacts, or archaeologist sit at their desks waiting for funding while the archaeological data dissappears via corrosion, looting and damage from trawling. The answer is easy if you use your brain....
The economic impact to the Bahamas would be substantial and long term. There are plenty of shipwrecks for both archaeologists and salvors, no need to be greedy. There isn't enough museum space for all of the artifacts anyways, and when those artifacts are silver and gold, you have additional costs of storing, securing and protecting them. Who will pay this cost? Alexandre? I think not, the Bahamian people will pay it. Academic Archaeology's antiquated views simply do not work any more. They barely worked when the governen funding was there, now that governments have cut out funding for historical ventures, we are left with two choices. Let our history rot away on the ocean floor, or let talented and well trained salvors recover the history following archaeological guidelines, and sell redundant artifacts to fund their very expensive activities.
There really is only one answer, and its not hard to see if you take the blinders off.
On Treasure salvaging can 'wipe out national debt'
Posted 12 March 2013, 12:18 p.m. Suggest removal