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| Long title | An Act to establish the title of States in certain abandoned shipwrecks, and for other purposes. |
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| Acronyms(colloquial) | ASA |
| Nicknames | Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 |
| Enacted by | the100th United States Congress |
| Effective | April 28, 1988 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 100-298 |
| Statutes at Large | 102 Stat. 432 |
| Codification | |
| Titles amended | 43 U.S.C.: Public Lands |
| U.S.C. sections created | 43 U.S.C. ch. 39 § 2101 |
| Legislative history | |
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TheAbandoned Shipwrecks Act is a piece ofUnited States legislation passed into law in 1988 meant to protect historicshipwrecks in US waters fromtreasure hunters and unauthorisedsalvagers by transferring the title to the wreck to the US state whose waters it lies in.
The Abandoned Shipwrecks Act (Pub. L. 100-298;43 U.S.C. §§ 2101–2106), also known as the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987, was passed into law due to severe damage to some 3,000 historic wrecks in theGreat Lakes and off the US coasts that had been salvaged, and in some cases ruined, by treasure hunters in the 1970s.[1] On April 29, 1988, PresidentRonald Reagan signed the bill (Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987, Pub. L. 100-298, 102 Stat. 432) into law.
The law provides that any wreck that lies embedded in a state's submerged lands is property of that state and subject to that state's jurisdiction if the wreck is determined as being abandoned. TheNational Park Service website states that these include:
abandoned shipwrecks embedded in a State's submerged lands; abandoned shipwrecks embedded in coralline formations protected by a State on its submerged lands; and abandoned shipwrecks located on a State's submerged lands and included in or determined eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.[2]"
In section 3, the act outlines what is meant by the use of certain words. In the case of the term "embedded," it states that it
... means firmly affixed in the submerged lands or in coralline formations such that the use of tools of excavation is required in order to move the bottom sediments to gain access to the shipwreck, its cargo, and any part thereof.
Also, the term "submerged lands" refers to "lands beneath navigable waters", and "state" denotes "a state of theUnited States of America,District of Columbia,Puerto Rico,Guam, theVirgin Islands,American Samoa, and theNorthern Mariana Islands."
The law does not protect military wrecks (which are always owned by the countries by which they were commissioned) or wrecks that lie onNative American land.
The act has come under fire due to its ambiguous wording. States make the claim that all shipwrecks that lay embedded in their waters are abandoned and under their jurisdiction. Some people claim that only the 10% most historic of all wrecks belong to states. The confusion has resulted in numerous court cases over ownership and salvage rights of the wreck. Salvagers argue that the states need to prove to the public which wrecks are historic and are protected under the Act, while the states claim that the salvager needs to provide proof of ownership if they are to salvage any parts, sediment, artifacts, etc., of the wreck.[3]
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