June 15, 2000

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Oral Testimony on the RMS Titanic Guidelines

Dear Sirs/Madams,

I would like to address you today as a representitive of the Historic Shipwreck Salvage Policy Council of Florida (HSSPC). HSSPC was formed in May of 1995 out of concern for NOAA’s interest in the shipwrecks of the Florida Keys through their designation of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This organization was instrumental in helping form the Submerged Cultural Resource guidelines that are now in affect throughout the Florida Keys.

Our organization had the full support of the Florida State Administration through two Secretaries of State, including the present Secretary- The Honorable Katherine Harris. It was incumbent upon us to point out to NOAA the discrepincy’s in their original SCR draft plan, which, if gone un-questioned, would have certainly elmininated the vast majority, if not all of the private sector Salvors in the Florida Keys.

Our relationship today with the local Sanctuary officials in the Keys is a friendly and cooperative one. One which we hope will last. However, that relationship at times is strained by the policy makers in Washington who seem to have lost touch with the wishes, goals and aspirations of its people. Instead, it seems, they unilateraly decide what is best for its citizens by surreptitiously removing their previously unchallenged rights in their chosen profession.

This latest volley of attacks by NOAA come in the form of “guidelines” for the RMS Titanic, Inc. These guidelines, with all their archaeological and cultural verbosity, have not yet been tested and can be scientificly proven to be incorrect. The most ridiculous of all being their adopted theory of “Preservation in Situ,” which, as most of us know, translates to “Leave it where it is until we can get it.”

By trying to enforce these new rules and regulations in the form of protective guidelines, which, by the way, Judge Clark in the United States District Court recently described as “Draconian,” NOAA is placing itself above the professionals, the scientific community and perhaps even the law. We believe this is a concerted effort by NOAA and other agencies of our government to subjugate the principles of the free enterprise system by dimenishing the efforts of the Federal Admiralty Courts of this country. It is no secret, gentleman, that NOAA eventually wishes to abolish their roll altogether to eleminate any actual due process and protection that the commercial salvor has recourse to at the present.

Where is all this coming from? And why? Maybe the question should be, Why now? These guidelines for the RMS Titanic, Inc. submitted by NOAA and supported by the State Department are strikeingly similar, shall we say, plagerizingly similar to the UNESCO guidelines that have been put forth in Paris by a cadre of this worlds Cultural Ministries. Ministries, that for the most part, haven’t a clue to the successful recovery and management of our undersea resources. Ministries that are more interested in controling them then protecting them. The whole purpose of the UNESCO convention, as everyone knows, is to ban all commercial salvage of historic shipwrecks. Some, as historic as only 50 years old.

The United States, in order to participate in the ratification of this international agreement, must convince the rest of the world that it will do all it can to control, or eliminate through attrition, its commercial salvors. And if that means the elimination of the Federal Admiralty Courts, so be it. Judge Clark has already intimated that what NOAA, and the State Department are attempting, may very well be unconstitutional. In the eyes of the public, ladies and gentleman, it appears to be far worse. It appears that we have a government kowtowing to the politics of the international community at the expense of the freedoms of it’s citizens. We are supposed to be the leaders of the free world- not the followers. The American people demand better from their government- not less.

RMS Titanic, Inc. has been authorized by a Federal Admiralty Court of this country to perform its due diligence in the recovery and conservation of the Titanic. That means, as in the case of the Atocha, the jurisdiction and title over shipwrecks that still prevails in this country is that of the Admiralty Courts. Any veiled attempts to usurp that jurisdiction by agencies of government will be seen as an attempt to deprive its citizens of their chosen profession and will be considered as a taking.

The Titanic, like the Atocha recoveries, have brought to the world the wonders, romance and splendor of times long past. It was accomplished only through the freedoms that we enjoy today in this country. If you take that away, not only will our maritime history rot under the sea, but you will have taken away the entrepreneurial spirit from the very people that have made this country great and who have strived for centuries to set us apart from the rest of the world.

Pat Clyne, Director Historic Shipwreck Salvage Policy Council