How far can a person go out in the water at the Treasure Coast areas?

[gold-digger]

Looking to get the facts before one ventures out in to Pirate Territory.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[paleoheadhunter]

I did alot of research about 2 years ago when I lived in St. Lucie.From what the law states is that from the dune line to the water line is open for all.DO NOT go in the water if you're within 1000 yards from a leased wreck.Which is every know wreck out there,but you can enter the water out of the 1000 yard radius.And if you think about all the north swells in the last 300 years there is no reason why you can't find treasure south(especially)of a wreck site.Here's a good site to visit it has all the wreck sites "known" along the coast as well as other good places to go.I can't remember the site that stated the law though.At this site scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Treasure dive sites.Good luck with the hunt.I've been missing it there lately.HH!!

http://www.treasuresites.com/

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[geckokid]

I did alot of research about 2 years ago when I lived in St. Lucie.From what the law states is that from the dune line to the water line is open for all.DO NOT go in the water if you're within 1000 yards from a leased wreck.Which is every know wreck out there,but you can enter the water out of the 1000 yard radius.And if you think about all the north swells in the last 300 years there is no reason why you can't find treasure south(especially)of a wreck site.Here's a good site to visit it has all the wreck sites "known" along the coast as well as other good places to go.I can't remember the site that stated the law though.At this site scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click Treasure dive sites.Good luck with the hunt.I've been missing it there lately.HH!!

http://www.treasuresites.com/

Thanks for the info

 

[Sandman]

I have withdrawn my earlier post because it didn't address the question.

You cannot go in the water at all on the Treasure Beaches anywhere near a shipwreck site with a metal detector. You can swim out to the cannons if you leave your MD in the car.

You must check with the authorities as to which beaches you may detect in the water in these areas.

 

[AKiwi]

so let's get this straight.......you can't md a beach that somebody has laid a claim to. Does this include spring tides? How can anyone put in a claim on a public beach?
or don't you have public beaches in the good old USA? Does the claim end up 1 mile inland? sounds like beaurcratic B/S to me.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

You can detect the beach, but not in the water on only a couple areas where known treasures ships sank, the vast majority of our beaches in Florida, probably over 95% are open to detect both the shore and in the water.

 

[wreckdiver1715]

There are no Florida laws or state statutes that prohibit you from diving with a metal detector. It is true however, that you must stay out of leased sites (see below), and out of some protected habitats with your detector. Additionally, you must abide by Florida law should you find anything on the bottom and recover it. Don't; effective 1 June 2005, the state of Florida did away with the Isolated Finds program. This program gave treasure hunters the opportunity to keep the find as long as they provided the state with the location.

It is now against the law to recover any man made object in state waters more than 50 years old. As a diver you are responsible for knowing these laws and locations before you dive with your detector. In Florida state waters include all submerged bottom lands to include lakes, rivers, ICW, and three miles out into the ocean on the East coast, nine miles out on the Gulf Coast, and twelve miles out from Key West.

Inside State parks you are required to get written permission from the Park Ranger before you hunt in the park. However, the State does allow metal detectors in some state parks. Not so with the Fed's! Do not bring your detector into a National park, and that includes any beaches, or waters adjacent to the National Park. For example the Canaveral Seashore National Park is patrolled by park police by land, sea and air, and there boats can out run mine. They have strict orders to keep treasure hunters away. Of course the beaches along the Kennedy Space Center, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station are off limits to the general public. While I and a few of my associates do have special access to the beaches at the Cape, we are not allowed to use my metal detector when we are working these beaches.

You can dive on Mel Fisher wrecks on the treasure coast if you so desire. However, be advised that you should not have a metal detector in the lease sites, and you must stay 300 feet away from the dive boats that are working the leases, and don't bring the detector within 3,000 yards (while in the water) of the GPS coordinates listed below.

There are very few private beaches in the State of Florida, and other than the National Parks, and a few upscale hotels around the state. You are allowed to hunt the beaches from the base of the Dune to the low tide line as you desire, and that includes the beaches adjacent to the 1715 fleet of Spanish shipwrecks. The rule on the beach is finders keepers, so don't let any beachside Condo owners or Hotel operators try to run you off, as they do not own the beach, the people of Florida own the beaches.

A note of caution while hunting on the beach at night, starting in May - October it is turtle nesting season, and artificial lighting is forbidden on the beach, especially in Brevard and Indian River County's, help us protect our endangered and protected wildlife.

Below I am listing the GPS coordinates of the current salvage leases along the Treasure Coast. There are more leases, referred to as search leases all up and down the coast. Should you be fortunate to find a ship wreck in one of these lease areas, the owner of the search lease would have initial claim on the wreck you find.

BENT ANCHOR S32G 27.55.7N X 80.29.12W; East to 27.55.7N X 80.28.57W; South-southeast to 27.53.28N X 80.27.24W; West to 27.53.28N X 80.27.68W; then follow the mean low tide line to point of beginning.
CABIN WRECK S27 27.49.8N X 80.25.55W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of mean low tide line.
DOUGLAS BEACH S26 27.25.3N X 80.16.50W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
POWER PLANT S25 27.21.2N X 80.13.65W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
ANCHOR WRECK S23 27.48.2N X 80.24.70W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
SPRING OF WHITBY S23 27.46.0N X 80.23.83W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
RIO MAR S23 27.38.3N X 80.20.90W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
SANDY POINT S23 27.35.8N X 80.19.65W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
UNKNOWN S23 27.19.0N X 80.12.30W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.
CORRIGANS WRECK S25 27.46.2N X 80.22.67W is the center point of a 3,000 yard radius excluding all land west of the mean low tide line.

 

[geckokid]

What about hunting in the water on Gasparilla Island and Englwood beaches??

 

[Ocean7]

http://www.atocha1622.com/Mike Maguire Treasure Hunter.htm

"Warning
The wrecks from the 1715 Fleet are protected by admiralty claims. This means you can not use a metal detector in the water of the wreck sites. It is a violation of state law to destroy or disturb any vegetation on the dune line. Trespassing on private property is also a violation."

 

[billinstuart]

I take the position that there is a "mean low tide" line, and often the actual "low" tide is above this line. The tide chart I use (where is that darn thing) lists both the low tide time AND the height relative to the legal "low tide". Thus, I will go out into areas that may be 6"-1' of water IF it is a day when the actual tides are higher than normal. Frankly, it is futile to try to detect in a high energy surf zone anyhow.

 

[geckokid]

What about hunting in the water on Gasparilla Island and Englwood beaches??

I guss I have to rephrase the qestion?

What about hunting in the water on Gasparilla Island and Englwood beaches that is on the OPPOSITE SIDE of of Fleet 1715 treasure coast, I am going metal detecting South West side of Florida near Port Charlottle on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida.

I don't need the answer to fleet 1715 because that is to far will not be hunting there.

 

[FLauthor]

geckokid: Charlotte Harbor and Gasparilla Island, no restrictions unless its a Wildlife Reserve but a check with the Game Warden will solve any problem. Most of the islands of Charlotte Harbor have been hunted to death during the 1960's - 1980's, not to say that something was missed. There was talk of a fellow who dragged a tow fish behind a cabin cruiser from Charlotte Harbor to Sarasota and found a couple of Spanish Galleons that nobody knew about. Talked with a deputy sheriff who saw the gold dubloons and 8 Reales that the TH'er possessed. There was a lot of ships that sank in Spanish days from storms and pirates with all hands lost and no record of them. Even a couple of U-boats are out there that got sent to the bottom during WW2.
There is a legend of several cannons that were near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River that some kids found while diving for shells. Old pirate trick was to fill captured cannons with Silver coins, wedge a cannon ball into the muzzle and dump them overboard. When times were hard and they needed money for gun powder then they return to their bank deposit. Of course, the ship was captured and pirates killed then there was nobody left to reclaim it.

 

[neo2868]

I have read on here somewhere that you can take a metal detector and other treasure hunting equipment in a leased area if and only if you buy a sub-lease from the company that has the lease rights....Mel Fisher's company has a 1 year lease to the 1715 wreck sites for $1,000 U.S. dollars. I personally talked with someone who did this for 3 years and he said that 2 of those years didn't yield anything but the third year produced about 2 million to which he was entitled a percentage for a finder's fee but even a percentage of say 30% of $2,000,000 is $600,000 and that is definitely worth the $3,000 that he spent.
If you are serious about doing that kind of treasure hunting then you might want to look into this sub-lease...if not then I would just listen to the advice of the rest of the guys on here and stay out of the water from sebastian inlet down to fort pierce.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

What is the southern bountry of the leased areas. I have friends who lived in Port St Lucie just south of FT. Pierce a few miles. I am curious about Jensen Beach Park, east of Port St Lucie.

 

[paleoheadhunter]

There's nothing in Jensen (known anyway).The southern most leased wreck is between Fredrick Douglas and John Brooks.I posted a couple years ago about an article from the St.Lucie News of a treasure salvage ship that was running in and out of St.Lucie inlet to an area around Tiger shores.Although I don't think I said what beach exactly in the post,but I'm not there anymore so,What the hay.You can probably search the paper archives and find it.It was somewhere around '95-'97.I was hunting the spot,but right after they did all the "re-nourishing" so there was 10-12 ft of DIRT on top of the actual beach. GL!!HH!! PALEO

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Thanks for reply, I was talking more about hunting recent drops in water, not old relics from 1715 fleet. Just wanted to know if it was legal to hunt in the water there.

 

[paleoheadhunter]

you can hunt the water out of the leased area of the wreck sites.Jensen would be fine.Look back at wreckdivers reply earlier on this post,the Douglas beach gps coordinates so 3000 yards radius from that spot would be the southern most border.I thought it was 1000 yards when I researched it a few years ago,but it either changed or I got bad info.It seems like there's so much fine print with this anymore.God forbid we and our kids decide to take on a healthy, educational hobby.Hunting artifacts singlehandedly saved me from my using and abusing drugs and alcohol and they're slowly ripping that away.Now I'd get in less trouble for possession of drugs then for possession of artifacts.Whoops!!! sorry about the rant.. GL!!HH!! PALEO

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Thanks again for the reply and the info.

That was the reason I got into metal detecting. I lived in midwest, most of it in Missouri for over 20 years. I was addicted to point collecting, even to the point I would hunt fields and streams in the winter, breaking ice to look below for points.

I have a nice collection, small to many others and large to some. I have close to a thousand artifacts, and many are on the high end. I found over 95% of them, and traded and or bought the remaining.

I moved back home to Florida and was going to hunt here when I learned Fla changed the laws and it's illegal to remove them from the creeks, streams and rivers. I was afraid to hunt due to the concern I would end up being charged for what use to be legal and then have someone confiscate my collection that I legally obtained walking fields and creeks in Missouri.

I missed the fun of the hunt, the thrill of the finds and decided to take up metal detecting. It is also great excercise.

 

[paleoheadhunter]

I was into md'ing for a while when I lived in St.Lucie,I was all excited when I got a water detector thinking I would go to these wreck sites and detect the dropoff ,but nooooooo.After researching the laws I would actually get nervous when a wave would break on the beach and the water got to my ankle.From what I understand,the state archys weren't getting enough info from our personal finds so they set these laws,BUT if they did half the research as some of us, they could get all the info they needed from websites and forums like this one.Thousands of years of artifacts out there which get paved over or buried under huge condos and houses everyday.And they're worried about "amateur" diggers and creek hunters.I hope one day they will ease up on us again. GL!!HH!! PALEO

 

[GatorBoy]

Good friend right there...wish he would come back