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The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society & Historical Museum in Key West Florida has over 200,000 visitors annually. Again, these visitors spend millions of dollars annually in the local economy.

The idea that private sector and good archaeology cannot co-exist is pure poppycock!!

All Florida private sector "treasure salvors" work with an archaeologist and perform artifact recovery with the practice of the State's "Archaeological Guidelines For Salvaging Historic Shipwreck Sites"

and then there is this....

Treasures retrieved from sailing vessels wrecked in treacherous waters off the Florida coast are to be analysed by experts at the University of Huddersfield. They won’t be getting their hands on gold, silver or casks of fabulous jewels. But to members of the Arms and Armour Research Group, the artefacts they will examine are equally precious.

The group, which includes historians, scientists and specialists in weaponry, has been forging important international links. And the latest is with the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, a not-for-profit organisation which runs a massively popular museum at Key West, in Florida. It is named after its benefactor, a diver who combed the seas off the Florida coast in search of sunken ships. One of his most spectacular finds was a Spanish galleon named the Atocha, sunk in 1622.

But although Mel Fisher was a professional treasure hunter, he also dreamed of a museum and educational facility that would enable the public to learn about his undersea world. It was established in 1982 and Mel Fisher – who died in 1998 – endowed it with a large collection of objects that he had discovered and they help to attract visitor numbers of 200,000 a year.

The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society continues its underwater research. “But for us it’s not about finding treasure but finding historical events that helped shape the way that we look at the past,” says Corey Malcom, who is the Society’s Director of Archaeology. “So for us a slave ship, for example, is just as valuable as a treasure-laden galleon.”

So if a museum where the public can see, touch and learn about cultural history is your proper idea of what should happen to submerged cultural resouces voice your backing of private sector salvage.

"The finding of a great treasure from the days of the Spanish Main is not the cherished dream of only the United States and Florida citizens; countless peoples from other lands have shared such thoughts. It would amaze and surprise most citizens of this country, when their dream, at the greatest of costs, was realized, the agents of respective governments would, on the most flimsy grounds, lay claim to the treasure."

---Judge William O.Mehrtens

U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida

August 21, 1978 Ruling Against the State of Florida

Following is a letter written by Taffi Fisher Abt daughter of world famous, legendary treasure hunter Mel Fisher

"From: Taffi Fisher Abt, President
Mel Fisher Center, Inc.
RE: “Oceans Act of 2000”

“Economically speaking, there is a domino effect that touches many industries not usually associated with salvage such as cultural tourism (including airlines, hotels, museums, rental car agencies, advertising, etc.) and the literary and film production fields and in turn many smaller industries are also affected. In the last decade, in the Sebastian, Florida area alone, my company has engaged employment for at least 1,500 people in fieldwork, systematically excavating the wrecks more than 8,000 days, recovering in excess of 38,500 artifacts with a monetary value in excess of $12,000,000 .00. From these artifacts, we donated more than 1,500 (most of the best) to the "People of the State of Florida" for their museums and collections valued in excess of $2,500,000. Tallahassee has a wonderful exhibit and the State sends exhibits all over the nation. We also have a traveling exhibition. Tens of thousands of school children and youth groups attend our exhibitions. We have also had hundreds documentaries, books, periodical articles, and even school texts written with this venture as their main subject. This in turn has generated substantial income to the industries of writers, news crews, TV and movie production companies, advertising agencies, moving companies, exhibit designers, etc. Copies of these books and videos such as Discovery Channel, National Geographic, A&E, etc. then get sold in bookstores, video stores, spreading not only economic gain but also knowledge and education of the general public.

In the last 8 years, we have enjoyed an attendance in excess of 105,000 visitors to our Sebastian museum alone (which showed demographically as an unsuccessful area for tourism) since opening in Dec. of 1992. More than $500,000.00 in attendance was generated back into commerce for expenses, employing another 80 people. Our museum/gift store has generated sales in excess of $2,600,000 over the last decade, and again, that money went back into the general mainstream of commerce. On this expedition alone in the past 8 years, our corporation has spent more than $2,600,000.00 in expenses at dive shops, marinas, fuel docks and grocery stores, welders, diesel engine mechanics, etc….again money that went back into the general mainstream of commerce.

Remember, ALL of the above facts are solely related to eleven shipwrecks in one small 60 square mile patch of earth.