Posted by Howard on September 08, 19100 at 21:55:27:
Last month I took a trip to Morehead City North Carolina. Beautiful beaches and, clear, warm water and hundreds of wrecks. While diving one wreck, 100 ft visibility, 80 degrees warm, 100 ft down and 30 miles south east from the outer banks another dive boat parked on the wreck and put two divers in the water. While I was exploring the wreck and enjoying the sea life that had made it home I encountered these two divers with a hammer bashing the wreck, tearing up the pipe and wires to retrieve a small brass fitting. The amount of damage they did in just a few minutes was unbelievable. I was shocked and when I ascended I told the captain of the charter I was on what had happened. When I said we need to report these people to the authorities, he sadly bowed his head and explained to me that NC had no laws to protect these wrecks from vandals, treasure hunters or artifact scroungers.
After all my years of wreck diving in Lake Michigan, this was the first time I witnessed divers willfully destroying a wreck. Thank our legislatures, the dive community and everyone responsible for our preservation laws and my condolences to the wreck divers of North Carolina, who will eventually loose all of their underwater history to these barbarians.