Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
From Shipwreck Off of Assateague Island.
A National Park Service Photo.
The La Galga and Juno shipwrecks were located off of Assateague Island and were awarded by the courts to Spain. Artifacts from those wrecks were "loaned" by Spain to the NPS for display.
Does this seem crazy to anyone else.
Here is a link to the story.
http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/npsites/assateague.htm
Here is one paragraph from that article.
Under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, the Congress gave the states title to most abandoned shipwrecks embedded in or on state submerged lands. Under this law, the Commonwealth of Virginia claimed the wrecks of La Galga and the Juno but in 1998 the Kingdom of Spain asserted legal ownership over them, arguing that the ships had not been declared abandoned. After a lengthy jurisdictional and ownership dispute, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the Kingdom of Spain’s status as the rightful owner of its sunken sovereign vessels and any artifacts and materials associated with such vessels as well as Spain’s rights to prevent salvage activities conducted without consent on its vessels. Sea Hunt, Inc. was ordered to return to Spain’s possession all artifacts and materials it had removed from the sites. The United States Supreme Court rejected without any comment or dissent appeals by Virginia and Sea Hunt, Inc. and so the precedent-setting decision of the United States Court of Appeals remains intact.
On another but related subject...
I've mentioned before how protected inlets often cause erosion to the south of the inlet because the natural flow of sand from the north is cut off. Here is a good example.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51596
I believe that the reason so many shipwrecks are found south of inlets is because of this. I also believe that there are just as many wrecks to the north of the inlets, but those tend to remain covered by the continual accumulation of sand.
If you look an aerial photo of Jupiter inlet, or many other inlets, you will see that the beach to the south of the inlet is farther west than that to the north, very much like that shown in the photo from the link above.
As usual, the readers of this blog come through. About the fossil tooth that I posted the other day, Fred D. says, YOU ARE CORRECT. IT IS A SLOTH TOOTH. THIS SPECIES IS VERY RARE. IT IS: THINOBADISTES WETZELI (MIOCENE). VERY, VERY NICE FIND. KEEP 'EM COMIN'!
If you like to find old things, you should like this. The Miocene was over 5 million years ago. I said 5 million - not hundreds or thousands, but million.
Here is a link about that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_sloth
Picture of Giant Ground Sloth Found in Above Wikipedia Article.The wind is now from the south and the beaches look like it. It is beginning to look a lot like summer on the beach fronts.
Joan T. said she visited three different beaches and they all looked the same. Not even any shell piles to sift through.
I'd say this wouldn't be a bad time to get out as far as you can in the low tide zone while the seas are relatively calm.
They'll stay calm until around Friday if the predictions are correct.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
