NPS And NOAA Sign Shipwreck Protection Agreement

Biscayne National Park, Florida

Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006

After nearly five years of negotiations, managers at Biscayne National Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that will facilitate the protection of shipwrecks and other submerged cultural resources. The MOA addresses ways in which the two agencies can partner to enhance social science research, resource protection and public information and education surrounding submerged archaeological sites, objects and associated records.

“Relic collecting and treasure hunting are still quite prevalent in the waters of both the Park and the Sanctuary,” said Brenda Lanzendorf, the park’s archaeologist and cultural resources manager. “Through this partnership, we will make significant inroads into preserving these vulnerable, non-renewable resources.”

Although similar agreements exist between these two agencies for protecting sea grasses, coral and other natural resources, this agreement for shipwreck preservation is unique.

Hundreds of shipwrecks and many other submerged archaeological sites are scattered across the two areas, with dozens of them located along the 30 miles of shared jurisdictional boundary. Both agencies are guided by the federal archaeology program, but until the signing of the MOA, the two agencies worked independently. Managers hope that this cooperative effort will help reveal the stories of a common maritime heritage.

http://www.nationalparksgallery.com/parks/Biscayne-National-Park

WD1715

Thanks for the posting.

"Managers hope that this cooperative effort will help reveal the stories of a common maritime heritage." they say.  This won't be achieved if they just leave all wrecks undisturbed on the ocean bed, will it ?

Mariner

 

True, leaving artifacts in-situ will not protect them from the ravages of time, nor will it be protected if unscrupulous treasure hunters continue to pilfer artifacts from the bottom of these protected locations.
The answer is to allow reputable treasure hunters (using standard archaeological guidelines), recover these wrecks in these environmentally sensitive locations (same with Cape Canaveral that also has a large number of wrecks). The standard 80/20 split between treasure hunters and the State has been working good for many years. Unfortunately, these locations are extremely sensitive from an environmental standpoint, so many of the common tools of the trade (mailboxes), would not be able to be deployed at any of the wreck sites. This would increase the cost of recovery operations, ensuring that only a commercial for profit company would be able to salvage these wrecks and protect the environment.
Or we can wait for them to allow oil rigs to go in along the Florida coast, and destroy the environment along with the marine sanctuaries. Once the oil companies have forged this path for us, the cost of recovery operations will go way down, as there will be nothing to protect. Break out the explosives and drop the blowers.

Tom

Hey Tom, a similar thing happened on the W. coast of FL. The FL Department of Environmental Protection gave the Piney Point phosephate pit a permit to dump 500 million gallons of acid waste in to the Gulf last year. This is because the phosphate mound was in danger of collapsing and dumping into Tampa Bay. They hauled the acid 100 miles out in the Gulf and dumped it. Last summer all the reefs, fish, crabs, coral and anything else alive was wiped out from Tarpon Springs to Ft. Meyers. It was a huge dead zone. The DEP blamed it on red tide! Now there's no reason to deny a dredge and fill permit to any treasure hunters in this area. You don't even need a biological survey since there is nothing left alive!

Everytime I hear about the RED TIDE I really get P.O.
2 years ago I came up with a way to kill off the RED TIDE without causingany damage to the Ocean environment. It was even tested at the Oregon University. BUT the DEP turned it down.
My product was tested on a sample of RED TIDE direct from the Pacific Ocean and it KILLED all the RED TIDE bacteria and did not harm any sea life. I also added it to some paint and it KILLED any and all fungus that was on houses in Oregon.
I use it on my house plants and yard plants. It is harmless to humans as well in fact I drink a table spoon twice a week.
I am not joking.
Peg leg