Dive Club Concerned
About Overcollection
By Carl
Naylor
Concerned about what they see as overcollecting of fossil shark's teeth in state waters, the Hilton Head Island Dive Club invited me to
address their October 2000 meeting.
After a slide presentation on SCIAA, the Underwater
Archaeology Division, and the Underwater Antiquities Act, the floor was opened up to questions and comments
from the 15 or so club members who attended the October 12 meeting at Island Scuba Dive & Travel dive shop.
Amber Hester, President of the club and employee at the dive shop, expressed the concern that some divers, with only Hobby Diver Licenses, are commercially collecting shark's teeth from the waters in
and around Beaufort County. These divers are then selling the teeth through
internet web pages and elsewhere.
While the collection of artifacts and
fossils is legal under the present Underwater Antiquities Act (as long as the
diver has a valid Hobby Diver License, the fossils were not collected using
mechanical means, and the activity is reported to the State Museum on Fossil
Report Forms) the law states that Hobby Licenses are for divers who want to
conduct "recreational, small scale, non-commercial search and recovery of
submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological
property."
Unfortunately, SCIAA has no means to monitor
the sale of artifacts or fossils and no way to verify that artifacts and fossils
offered for sale on the internet or elsewhere were collected from state waters.
Under the law, the South Carolina State Museum is the custodian of all submerged
paleontological material and all Fossil Report Forms filed by Hobby Divers go to
the State Museum.
When contacted about the dive club's
concerns, Jim Knight, who monitors fossil collection by Hobby Divers for the
State Museum, stated he didn't care about shark's teeth since from a scientific
point of view they had no value.
Despite this, many members of the club felt
there should be more restrictions on those who sell artifacts and fossils and
suggested that the law be revised to include a "commercial collectors" license
for these divers. Some of the restrictions proposed included a higher fee and
requiring that "commercial collectors" have business licenses and pay taxes on
their revenues.
The staff of SCIAA's Underwater Division is
taking preliminary steps to revise the current law and would like to hear from
the diving public. If anyone would like a copy of the South Carolina Underwater
Antiquities Act of 1991 or would like to comment on the law please contact Carl
Naylor at (843) 762-6105.
