NOAA and the Robert Walker Wreck

I have held back for quite some time in writing about NOAA's recent report in which they have identified a wreck off of Atlantic City commonly known as the $25 wreck or Mason's Paddlewheeler.  Here is a link to the report:
Identification of the Wreck of the U.S.C.S.S. Robert J. Walker

Last July (2013) I was invited by the NJ Maritime Museum to attend a meeting with NOAA about the possible identification of the wreck.   I attended only because I was curious about their findings.  During this meeting NOAA advised that they have identified the $25 Wreck and/or Mason's Paddlewheeler and find it to be the Robert J. Walker Wreck.  They were interested in creating a bridge with the wreck diving community and ultimately setting up a display in the museum about the wreck.  They hoped that the wreck diving community could work together with NOAA to continue to further document the wreck and to have artifacts previously recovered by divers displayed in the museum.  Initially I thought that NOAA has finally changed its view about wreck divers and have found a way to work together towards common goals.

After the meeting I read through the report identifying the wreck and noticed immediately that my words were taken from my blog and used as a means to help NOAA identify this wreck without my permission.  I subsequently contacted Mr. James Delagado and expressed my copyright concerns and he agreed to remove reference to myself and my blog from the report.  Since our meeting, Mr. Delgado has been very proactive in trying to get the message out to divers that NOAA wants to form this bridge with them and that they are not here to confiscate any artifacts found on the wreck in prior years when the wreck was unidentified.  NOAA is currently working on a letter that would allow divers to display their artifacts in the NJ Maritime Museum without NOAA taking ownership of the artifacts.  I am cautiously optimistic that this letter will come from someone with authority given the existing laws in place claiming ownership to all Federally owned wrecks and their contents.  It is disturbing to know that while NOAA is trying to form this bridge with wreck divers, the Department of  Defense is trying to pass a rule revision that would further restrict diving to military wrecks or government connected wrecks..  Time will tell how this matter will be handled between the two Federal agencies

As you all know, I love to wreck dive and all of these events have deeply saddened me.  I have worked for and/or with government all my life and what I have observed is they do like to come in and propose radical regulations that restrict so many freedoms but, then in time they "relax" those regulations due to their impact on the economy or lack of means to enforce them.  I suspect this will be the case with these new regulations restricting our freedom to dive so many wrecks here in NJ that were tied to war times.  What NOAA or the Department of Defense cannot take away from me is my memories and adventures that I have lived diving these wrecks.  I have had great times out diving the $25 wreck in the 1980's and have participated in great conversations of what this wreck or other unidentified wrecks could possibly be.  NOAA came in and took credit for identifying this one wreck but, there were many years that divers found artifacts and saw the wreck before it settled into the muddy substrate.  During those times divers shared their findings and worked together to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together and identify a wreck.  I'm afraid I am still not convinced that there is enough evidence to accurately identity the $25 wreck and/or Mason's Paddlewheeler.  Those years where divers worked together and shared artifacts are now coming to an end as a result of the overzealous government agencies, and now this must be done in absolute secrecy.

I removed my post about the $25 wreck last year to protect my copyright rights.  Until the foreseeable future, I will no longer post in my blog photos of artifacts recovered, or even write about them unless I am absolutely positive that it is not a government wreck. I will however, continue to photograph divers obtaining artifacts underwater and up on the boat but, it will simply be shared in privacy among fellow divers and not on my blog.  Safe Diving!