. . ProSEA was created to represent Shipwreck Explorers in presenting an articulate and diplomatic approach to reversing UNESCO’s planned international ban on Commercial Shipwreck Exploration.

. . The search, recovery, documentation and conservation of artifacts by the commercial salvage industry does not cost the tax payer a dime, and under the present laws, you and I, if we wish, may own an antiquity from the sea. If UNESCO gets their way, and their ideologies become institutionalized, the taxpayer pays for all of it, but it will be owned and warehoused by a bureaucratic agency. And by law, no citizen will be "ALLOWED" to ever own any of these artifacts for the mere reason that they came from the sea.

. . It has even been discussed at UNESCO that these new laws should be retroactive, meaning that any of us now owning such things as coins from Spanish shipwrecks, should hand them over to government agencies that would now be responsible for their inventory. Salvors believe that we, as citizens of this country, should have the continued right to own these antiquities if we wish, and that the continued and present application of Admiralty law be maintained, and that it not be negotiable by our State Department to bargain with.

. . Here is a quote from a US District Court Judge after finding in favor of the salvors when the government tried in the past to "relieve" them of their recoveries:

. . "The finding of a great treasure from the days of the Spanish Main is not the cherished dream of only the United States and Florida citizens; countless people from other lands have shared such thoughts. It would amaze and surprise most citizens of this country, when their dream, at the greatest of costs, was realized, that agents of respective governments would, on the most flimsy grounds, lay claim to the treasure."

The Late Judge William O. Mehrtens
US District Court for the
Southern District of Florida
August 21, 1978 ruling

. . Over 21 years later after Judge Mehrtens penned those words, governments from around the world are now trying to "...lay claim to the treasure" again. Only this time the 'Treasure' happens to be our 'Rights'. And as salvors, divers or just citizens, we should act in one voice and tell the leaders of our country and the leaders of theirs, how we feel about keeping those rights.

. . The sport diver should also be very concerned about UNESCO’s pending regulations that ban diving on shipwrecks 50 years old or older. A law that broad and encompassing would wipe out recreational shipwreck diving as we know it, and drastically affect the dive industries marketing capabilities.

. . You can join and support ProSEA now. This organization, formed only two years ago, has had the ONLY representative from the commercial salvage industry nominated to the US delegation and the ONLY representative from the salvage industry recognized at the UN summit in Paris from the entire international community. ProSEA is the lone voice in a forest of foreign bureaucrats wanting to stomp out shipwreck sport divers and commercial salvors worldwide. But we are a very loud voice.

. . ProSEA has been formed to be that one voice, and it is heard very clearly in Washington and in Paris. Please join ProSEA and support us in our fight to maintain those American laws and values that protect us from their kind of political oppression. If you feel as we do and wish your voice to be heard, Join ProSEA now!