Evaluation of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987: Impact and Challenges for Preserving Underwater Cultural Heritage

ABSTRACT

In the demand of regulatory policy to control salvage of shipwrecks and protect the nation's underwater cultural heritage, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 allowed the exception of the admiralty law to give states authority and management of abandoned shipwrecks for the purposes of preservation and recreation. Due to the lack of its regulatory power and vague standards, the Act has been harshly criticized for being ineffectual in resolving conflicts between commercial salvors, and states or protecting illicit salvage. This research will examine the purpose and impact of the policy under the framework of the National Historic Preservation Act, which restrained options in the policymaking. While acknowledging its limitations, this research finds that the Act enabled the inclusion of historic shipwrecks in the nation's preservation system, allowed funding, and promoted its use for public benefits. Studying the Act in the policy context of the U.S. historic preservation can promote the rightful understanding of its policy limitations as well as impact, and support feasible policy improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Abandoned Shipwreck Act
• heritage management
• historic preservation
• historic shipwreck
• National Historic Preservation Act
• underwater cultural heritage

Notes

1. Similar cases were actually enacted later as a modification of the NHPA. For example, the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA; Public Law 106-355; 16 U.S.C. 470-w-7) that allows the federal government to transfer excessive cost demanding federally owned historic lighthouses to non-federal entities for the public benefit is a comparable policy structure to the ASA, and it was created as a modification of the NHPA.

2. “Deep Sea Research Inc. v. Brother Jonathan,” FindLaw, 2012. Accessed March 25, 2012. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1206377.html.

3. “United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit,” FindLaw, 2012. Accessed March 25, 2012. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1478049.html

4. The international nautical mile of 1852 meters was defined by the First International Extraordinary Hydrographic Conference in Monaco in 1929 and was adopted by the Unites States in 1954.

5. “Historic property” or “historic resource” in the NHPA refers to any prehistoric or historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in, or eligible for inclusion in, the National Register, including artifacts, records, and material remains related to such a property or resource.

6. Section 106 (16 U.S.C. 470f) of the NHPA mandates federal agencies to take into account the effect of federal or of federally assisted undertakings on historic properties.

7. Section 110 of the NHPA (16 U.S.C. 470 h-2) stresses federal agencies’ responsibilities for historic preservation and recommends that historic preservation be fully integrated into the ongoing programs of all federal agencies.