Six Rescued from Engine-troubled Speedboat
The Philippine Coast Guard reported that three Filipino and three foreign nationals were rescued by the after their speedboat encountered engine trouble on the waters of Barangay Bitaogon, Surigao City, March 4. The passengers, of Filipino, Canadian and Swedish nationalities, were onboard speedboat Sea Hunt when it encountered engine problems. Johan Maloto, third officer of an undetermined vessel, informed Coast Guard Station (CGS) Surigao that Sea Hunt, owned and skippered by Michael Briman was in distress. Upon verification of the report, CGS Surigao deployed the personnel of Coast Guard Sub Station (CGSS) Socorro onboard M/L Mollameda, skippered by Rico Alabat, for the conduct of search and rescue operations.
The Abandoned Shipwreck Act: Useful Tool for Preservation or Paper Tiger?
In 1988, Congress enacted the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (Pub. L. 100-298, 43 U.S.C. §§ 2101-2106), in an effort to give states more authority to protect the historical provenance of abandoned shipwrecks in state waters. It was one of the more controversial laws Congress passed that year because it pitted treasure salvors and divers, on the one hand, against states and historic preservationists on the other. In the end, the states won passage of the legislation, but some twelve years later, the question remains whether the Act has had the intended effect. Two significant decisions since 1988 have called into question the law's stated Congressional policy. First, a description of the Act itself.
Treasure Hunters Thwarted By Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling that Spain owns the remains of two of its warships that sank off the Virginia coast hundreds of years ago, handing a setback to a treasure-hunting, maritime salvage company. Virginia asserted ownership of the shipwrecks of the Spanish Royal Naval vessels -- La Galga, which sank in 1750, and Juno, which went down in 1802. Virginia issued Sea Hunt, a salvage company, permits to recover artifacts from the wrecks. But Spain then filed a claim asserting ownership over the shipwrecks, citing a 1902 treaty between the United States and Spain protecting shipwrecks and military gravesites. Under the treaty, vessels may be abandoned only by express acts. A U.S. appeals court ruled last year that the two ships belonged to Spain.
