Wreck thieves caught

apparently some artifact thieves were caught and charged for stealing artifacts off the shipwreck New York off of Sanilac shores Michigan. They were caught before but were let go by the Canadian Coast Guard. I don't have all the particulars,but I know that their gear was confiscated. They are now facing big fines and possible jail time.

These kind of divers really p**s me off. I am sick of going on wrecks that a lot of the things you want to see are gone. In a couple of weeks My buddy and I will be diving on the Willis...a wreck that lays at 60-73 feet east of the Pelee passage. She is almost 150 years old and bean down there for about that long, and miraculously in great shape and upright with only the masts broken, but I already know that the portholes have already been stolen....this sort of crap really sucks. So many of these old Schooners and Barks, and Scows we have littered all over the Great Lakes have been robbed silly. Shame you might have to get into serious tech deep diving to see wrecks that havent been robbed yet:upset:

Rooster1 once bnorgled...
These kind of divers really p**s me off. I am sick of going on wrecks that a lot of the things you want to see are gone.

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String 'em high and leave their rotting carcasses swinging until they fall apart.

Steven

There is a Dive store in Douglasville GA, walk in there and you will see a piece of railing hanging from the roof in there from a Sub in NC, when you walk in the owner will proudly tell you how it took it from the wreck a few months ago, If your real lucky he may also show you some other Souviners he has.

Subsequently, I dont go there anymore.....

DAve

I agree with you Rooster1 but I have to laugh.

I have worked with a few nurses from Canada and your spelling of been(bean) is right on the mark. We were working in Texas at the time and the Texans laughed at my Minnesotan accent(don't cha, ya know) and I laughed at the Canadians.

Back to the important stuff...

I was SHOCKED to see and hear divers interested in taking stuff off of the U352 in North Carolina. I dove with Olympus Dive Center and while they did a great job of draging my butt around the ocean they made me so made by proudly displaying their 20mm cannon from the U352. One of the divemasters was telling the divers how hard it was to bring it up and "restore" it. I said "Why didn't you bring up the whole damn ship so I didn't have to pay you 115 bucks to go and see what's left of it"

In addition, these idiots are spearing on the same wrecks that they take divers to. The spearers don't go for the smallest, weakest fish, but the largest trophy fish. This weakens the population and decreases the fish population as a whole, thereby decreasing interest in divers paying big bucks to dive there. Many, many countries have figured this out long ago and don't permit spearing, or stealing coral, or fishing in their waters. Why don't the local divers in North Carolina put two and two together and realize that they are only hurting themselves by taking fish and relics in this fashion. Just incredibly stupid and short sighted. I would think that they would want to protect their livelihood but they think the sea will always keep giving.

Shoot pictures, leave bubbles.

buff once bubbled...
Shoot pictures, leave bubbles.

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I heard of a fellow once who shot bubbles and left pictures... but that's another story.

I think your post is correct in pointing out that it is far more beneficial to leave the artifacts in situ and leave the fish alone as well.

However... without appropriate legislation, effective enforcement and servere punishment the ivory hunters will continue to slaughter elephants until they are no more... so to speak (same mentality.)

Until then those who care can exert whatever social and economic pressure they can upon individuals who are guilty of such mindless selfishness.

Course if I find me a 35mm canon I'm takin' it. ut:

I eat fish.
I can buy it in the market, where each pound of fish represents one to four pounds of bycatch wasted, or I can shoot what I put on my plate, selecting only the fish I will eat, wasting none.
You pick.
Rick

buff might have been alluding to the practice of taking the larger fish for the "trophy value" over smaller fish for the "tonight's dinner value". A very ingrained mindset when fishing - the bigger the fish you catch, the better, when some fisheries experts (or environmentalists, I'll have to dig up the reference) are suggesting that the practice of taking larger fish, "because they've had a chance to reproduce", is more harmful than taking smaller immature fish, because in some species at least, the ability to reproduce is exponential, so by removing the larger fish, you could be removing a fish that is capable of producing 1,000,000 eggs in a breeding cycle, versus a smaller fish that can only produce 5,000 eggs. Sort of like killing the brood mare in a horse stud.

But you're dead right about spearfishing being more environmentally sound versus commercial fishing - I'm sure there's no seabirds, sharks, dolphins, turtles or other non-target species bycatch hanging off the end of most spears (not to mention line or netting).

apparently some artifact thieves were caught and charged for stealing artifacts off the shipwreck New York off of Sanilac shores Michigan. They were caught before but were let go by the Canadian Coast Guard. I don't have all the particulars,but I know that their gear was confiscated. They are now facing big fines and possible jail time.

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Hope they get hammered.

In a couple of weeks My buddy and I will be diving on the Willis...a wreck that lays at 60-73 feet east of the Pelee passage. She is almost 150 years old and been down there for about that long, and miraculously in great shape and upright with only the masts broken, but I already know that the portholes have already been stolen....this sort of crap really sucks. So many of these old Schooners and Barks, and Scows we have littered all over the Great Lakes have been robbed silly. Shame you might have to get into serious tech deep diving to see wrecks that havent been robbed yet:upset:

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Point well taken. But you'll still like the Willis.