August 2009 - Florida Yacht Brokers Association, Inc.

By Johnlee S. Curtis, Esq.* of Moore & Company, P.A.
As greater technological tools have become available for the
exploration of the sea’s surface, increasing numbers of salvors
and explorers have met with success in uncovering underwater
assets, such as historic shipwrecks and artifacts.
Naturally, with these discoveries have come disputes over
ownership. These disputes are between two groups: governments/archeologists
and salvors. In the cases that have been
decided, each of these groups uses different legal theories to
present their respective, opposing cases.
The salvors have primarily used admiralty law and filed admiralty
claims in federal courts in the United States arguing that
the law of “finds” entitles them ownership to abandoned historic
shipwrecks and their cargo. Additionally, they have
argued that salvage awards should be granted for the act of
rescuing the yachts of yore (and their booty) from “marine
peril” and returning them to the stream of commerce. The
governments/archeologists have used a variety of laws to try
to defend against the unregulated pillaging of submerged cultural
property. These laws come in two categories. First, they
have used claims of ownership rights (when they are governments
and the vessels are within their territorial waters).
Second, they have used preservation laws and permitting regulations.
A brief look at the relevant cases and legal doctrines
is illustrative of how all of these polar arguments have fared.
One landmark case, Treasure Salvors v. The Unidentified
Wrecked and Abandoned Sailing Vessel, 569 F.2d 330 (5th
Cir. 1978) (“Treasure Salvors”) held that the Outer
Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 USC 1331, et seq.) only
extended United States jurisdiction to the outer continental
shelf for purposes of exploration and exploitation of its natural
resources, not for purposes of controlling salvaged abandoned
historic shipwrecks. Thus, the salvors have continued
to use maritime law to assert salvage claims to submerged cultural
property.
State governments have claimed ownership of submerged cultural
property via the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987
(“ASA”). The ASA exercises federal sovereign prerogative
over abandoned shipwrecks and transfers title to them to the
states in which the abandoned shipwrecks are resting. This
allows state governments to assert title to and manage these
abandoned shipwrecks as against salvors. However, the ASA
applies only to wrecks within three nautical miles of the
shores of U.S. states and territories, and the ASA only protects