Mel Fisher Raid Is Suspect

If a reputable art gallery is duped into purchasing a forgery, would the entire art gallery be the subject of a full scale raid during business hours? What if the raid took place to coincide exactly on the date of an annual investor gathering? With all of the problems Mel Fisher has had through the years just to maintain his right to recover historic artifacts, which, by the way, was granted by the Supreme Court of The United States, is it any wonder why Mel and the Salvors feel the intent and timing of the raid on his office recently a little suspect as well?

Will this hurt our business? Of course it will cast a shadow of doubt with those few people that may not know Mel Fisher or his reputation. It certainly gives the cynics in government more ammunition, those who would rather cast stones from afar than visit our conservation labs to see the daily work that goes on by Mel Fisher’s staff in preserving these authentic artifacts.

The surprising thing however, is that this may have backfired on them. The overwhelming response we have been getting from callers around the nation are extremely supportive. This seems to have touched off a nerve of public resentment that we haven’t seen since the government illegally banned treasure hunting in the Keys in 1992, to which at first they denied and then retracted.

The idea that Mel Fisher, who has dedicated his life’s work to recovering historic artifacts, would ever knowingly consider dealing in fake ones, is beyond logic. If it were up to certain government agencies, (and this is not a secret) no individual citizen of this country would be allowed to own any antiquities from the sea. Mel Fisher and the Salvors feel that we, as citizens of this country still have that right, and no campaign of mis- information can fool the American people from the truth. We shall continue.