"Asia’s disappearing WWII shipwrecks" article in Guardian about grave robbing for salvage

[Russjstewart]

Newspaper reports arez that 60% of HMAS Perth has been lifted
"This isn't what we were hoping to find": 60 per cent of HMAS Perth has vanished

The vis in the Sunday Straits does leave a lot to be desired

 

[Ankush Mittal]

I've added Truck Lagoon to my dive bucket list already.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm not a wreck diver, and I'm pretty sure the Guardian likes to push sensationalist headlines and/or clickbait.

Nevertheless, I found this article sad and disturbing, and thought it was worth a read. Some decent graphics in here as well.

Alleges grave robbing in the name of salvaging WWII wrecks in Asia Pacific. Not sure there's a lot that can be done to stop it without direct gov't support?

It should be made clear that these wrecks are not being salvaged by scuba divers. Scuba divers do not have the resources to lift and shift an ENTIRE wreck. At most, scuba divers may remove a limited number of loose artifacts from a wreck. Particularly motivated divers may be able to hack away the bolts holding a porthole onto a wreck so they can make a cool looking clock out of it, or whatever....

What is happening here, however, is on a scale completely beyond anything scuba divers are capable of. We're talking about moving tonnes or hundreds of tonnes of steel. There are some reasons (like access to low background steel) that have commercial value that could make salvaging such wrecks lucrative for certain commercial applications, regardless of the ethics of disturbing war graves.

To my mind, this is not an issue related to wreck diving on scuba.

R..

 

[Ankush Mittal]

To my mind, this is not an issue related to wreck diving on scuba.

There are some wrecks which are salvaged for their non background and some are just destroyed by unethical scuba divers, especially in countries where the Dive Shops don't enforce or reiterate local laws and ensure the divers not manhandle the wreck or take artifacts from the wreck which can make the subsequent divers coming to see that wreck less exciting.

Nevertheless, once the wrecks which aren't dived regularly or easily are salvaged by non divers for whatever reason, won't they come for the wrecks accessed by Scuba Divers around the world?

But, largely, my concern is that wouldn't the fact that Wrecks are being manhandled by anyone be an issue related to wreck diving on scuba considering the appeal of the wreck people want to dive is the history, interesting things to see, parts of the ship, etc etc rather than a ship which is salvaged unless I misunderstood your point.