The Salvage Rights to the 1715 Wreck Sites were just sold by the Mel Fisher Family to the Brisben Family in July of this year. The State of Florida had awarded the salvage rights to the Fisher’s in the early 1980’s and will now have a contact with the Salvour in Posession, the Brisbens. The State requires data recording to be done during salvage work and of course takes their cut. I worked under a subcontact in the early 1990’s, the photograph of the gold crufix on my Dive Buddy page was found that season and was taken by the State for their cut,. The Fishers paid us for our share in silver coins. Of course we also split with the Fisher’s. This 2010 salvage season has started out great with lots of prestine gold coins being found hidden in a recovered small bronze breech loading cannon. (trying to beat the tax man). If you want to read about treasure hunting from those who are doing it and are in the know, look online for a quarterly publication called PLVS VLTRA NEWSLETTER by EN RADA Publications in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Robert