Risks of Treasure Hunting!

Every red blooded pirate has dreamed of finding treasure n' it seems that the risk of finding some now be as risky as it be 300 years ago.  If ye happen to come across some shinny object stuck in the corel 20 feet below the water line when spear fishing.  Ye pull that object out of the water, not really know what it might be as it be encrusted with corel.  You take it to the local University to have them remove all that crustacean, to discover a few old silver coins.  They call up the state and make you sign a permit form.  You arrrr all excited, think ye might of hit the treasure load.  

When you start doing research you discover that the worst investment in the world, be ship wreck treasure.  You start looking around yar boat to see if anyone be following you out to the wreck site, waiting fer you to leave and go diving to pick yar wreck clean.  As it normally take years to do a treasure wreck site. You can't sit on top of yar site forever, as you need to go back and forth hundreds of times.  The word always gets out, because you have to deal with may people to get this job done.  The State of Florida will take half of what you pull up, and they will cherry pick the best stuff.

Odyssey Marine discovered $600 Million in sunken treasure at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean in 2007. This treasure was called the Black Swan, which the Spanish government believed it to be the 1804 wreck of a warship called the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.  They spend 4 years in court, when the US District Court ruled the all the treasure belong to Spain.  Odyssey didn't recoup any of the very expensive cost of getting the treasure out of the ocean except for a bill of $3.3 Million in Spanish legal fees and $1Million abusive litigation fee.  So how is the pirate in this case, be the Government of Spain n' the USA.

The reality of treasure hunting doesn't quiet match the fantasy of it.