Should shipwrecks be left alone?

[Shooter]

Nice post Steve.  8) a relevant topic that requires serious discussion.

Sean Fisher, whose grandfather Mel discovered the treasure ship Nuestra Senora de Atocha off Florida, says he is not "ashamed to call himself a treasure hunter."

"Purist archaeologists turn up their noses at us," he says. "But every artefact we find, whether it's a piece of pottery, a gold bar or a spike used in the rigging gets treated with exactly the same care.

"Everybody loves gold and everybody has a bit of treasure hunter in them but for me the most exciting thing I ever found was a 400-year-old arquebus (hook gun). It was like bringing history back to life."

Purist archaeologists? That sounds strikingly familiar. In my opinion treasure hunters are archaeologists. The only difference is they have a lot more risk with capital ventured. They don't get paid unless they find what they're looking for. Archaeologists, using grants, donations, and other sources of income which ultimately come from tax revenues, get paid to look. It seems to me they have a sense of entitlement, and the rest of us are vile looters with crowbars