Talk:Abandoned Shipwrecks Act

Removal of Mel Fisher mention

I just removed the following text from the article:

One example of this is Mel Fisher and his highly publicized treasure hunting expeditions off the coast of Florida for the Spanish galleons Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita.

References

The problem with the text is that the cited website, baillod.com, is a family geneaology website. It does not meet the criteria of WP:RS. If more reliable sources single out Fisher, then it's reasonable to include him. However, I don't think Wikipedia policies allow us to mention Fisher based only on this source. —C.Fred (talk) 17:49, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Agreed - I was in the process of removing it myself for the same reason, but you hit "save" before I did. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 17:51, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

On a secondary issue; removal of that ref appears to have broken ref #2 (same baillod.com page) which was in the "Controversies" section, and the link also appears in the external links section. The question then comes up as to if the ref is usable for either of those places (I would argue not), and if not, what ref to use as a replacement. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 18:00, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I present this article, a review of the background of the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act from the Quinnipiac Law School Law Journal, that also clearly indicates that the actions of Fisher's Treasure Salvors Inc. in regard to salvage operations on the Atocha were largely influential in the developement of the federal statute. This is not to say that Fisher did anything wrong: he acted within the law that existed at the time of his operations. It is just to clarify that this action appears to have been a significant impetus driving the crafting of the federal legislation. I think we can accept this Law Review article as a reliable source. And I think we can clarify the article so as not to cast aspersions on Fisher's entirely legal operations while still reflecting that this was a main basis of the federal law. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 18:17, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I recommend addition of wording such as the following:

...by treasure hunters in the 1970s. The particular case of the salvage of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, an historic and culturally significant wreck off the coast of Florida, in which the State of Florida was unable to prevent the salvage operations due to a lack of a suitable law that would disallow it, spurred action at the federal level to address the situation.

This would be cited by the Quinnipiac Law Review article noted above. This presents the salvage operation as completely legal given the laws in effect at the time (thus casting no aspersions or defamation on any single party) while still echoing the import of that event in spurring the legislation. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 18:56, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I like that wording. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:18, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Done. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 21:06, 3 March 2015 (UTC)