Re: Archaeologists see treasure looting taking all of the shipwrecks

In article <1181556525.782916.124740@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
On Jun 10, 10:16 pm, Mark Borgerson <mborger...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<<SNIP>>
Commercially, it IS a loss. Ship time without an ROV is at least
$10,000 per day for medium sized oceanographic vessels. I can't
imagine the treasure hunting ships with ROVs are any less.

I doubt that the companies feel it is the only way. They just feel
that it is the most profitable way. Until an archeological group
can pony up $10K+ per day for a few months, treasure hunting
will have priority.

If a recovery operations nets $100,000 per day (to pay for all
the $10K days in discovery), the archeologists are more likely
to have to offer closer to $100K/day to cover the opportunity
costs for the treasure hunters. Either that, or they have to
pay a good share of the cost of locating the wreck.

Mark Borgersron

Bob Ballard seems to be able to mix the two. I presume some form of
incentive like a tax break for finding and proving something, like the
notebooks, would be feasible, but there is too much emphasis on
returns for the shareholder and too little on the loss the methods
used entail.

I think the National Geographic Society and the Discovery Channel
can only afford one Bob Ballard! If there were funds for more
explorations of that type, the archeologists would be out there.

In any case, the accountants are much more comfortable measuring
returns to the shareholder than they are in evaluating cultural
losses.

I imagine if a private company were to go around to world class
museums and use solvents to remove the existing paintings in hopes of
finding a "lost" masterpiece that might elicit some response.

I imagine that the legal consequences would be different if the
museums were in no country and the paintings were not legally the
property of an individual or government.


I don't think much will change in the conflict between archeologist
and treasure hunter until the archeologists can attract the same
funding as the treasure hunters. When you've figured out how to
make that happen, be sure to let us know! Hint: Dropping a few
extra bucks in the donations box at the local maritime museum
isn't going to get you there any time soon.



Mark Borgerson





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