HOT NEWS !

From the Associated Press

Peruvian consumer rights advocates urged Peru's government Monday to claim some US$500 million in gold and silver coins found in a sunken galleon off the coast of Spain last year.

Some 17 tons (15.4 metric tons) of coins were discovered by a Tampa, Fla.-based treasure-hunting company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, when it raised a shipwreck west of the Straits of Gibraltar in May 2007.

Spain's government also claims ownership of the wreck and its contents — and has sued Odyssey, which hauled away the treasure.

But the Association of Peruvian Consumers and Users said the South American nation also has a right to the booty, since it believes the coins were made with Peruvian metals and minted in Lima.

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From Reading

Eagle Crew of 17th century treasure ship ran a foul of pirates.

The story of the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion's missing treasure reads more like a Hollywood script than a history book.

From information unearthed in Spain's Archives of the Indies, much of which author Pete Earle used for his book "The Wreck of the Almiranta," treasure hunter Burt Webber was able to piece together the story of the last moments of the Concepcion.

He also learned how some of the ship's spilled treasure was collected before again slipping into the warm waters of the Caribbean.

Flush with gold and silver, the 550-ton ship sailed from Cuba in 1641 en route to Spain.

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From BBC News

A medieval church which tumbled from an eroding cliff into the sea has been rediscovered by marine archaeologists.

They believe the ruins they have found are St John's church, the biggest in Dunwich which was lost to the sea off the coast of Suffolk.

Dunwich was once a thriving community before being swallowed up by the North Sea more than 500 years ago.

Experts are using the latest acoustic imaging technology to uncover clues about the lost city in the North Sea.

Stuart Bacon, director of Suffolk Underwater Studies, said: "We've found the ruins of a medieval church called St John's, which was the biggest in Dunwich.

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By Michael Theodoulou

Two years ago, a Cypriot diver was stunned by a chance find: hundreds of ancient ceramic wine jars, rising from a featureless expanse of flat, desert-like seabed off Cyprus's southern coast.

Together they formed the shape of a ghostly ship, still submerged beneath the sands.

It now appears that what the diver discovered was a supertanker of its time, and the biggest and probably oldest wreck ever found in the island's waters.

From Public Technology

An European funded project to survey the seabed off the northern coast of Ireland, parts of which have not been surveyed since Victorian times, has started to provide some spectacular results showing underwater cliffs, reefs, caves and what may have been a lagoon.

The wreck of a ship which sank in 1918 has also been discovered. Survey operations started in November last year and vessels using modern multi-beam echo sounding technology have been surveying a 3 nautical mile coastal strip westward from Country Antrim, around Rathlin Island to Inishtrahull Island off Donegal.

Those results have now been collated into a graphical display.

The data gained will be used to provide more accurate navigational charts and to study the topography of the sea floor.

The Joint Irish Bathymetric Survey (JIBS) Project is being led by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in partnership with the Marine Institute of Ireland. This E2.1m joint venture is being entirely funded by the EU from their INTERREG Programme, which is co-ordinated by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.

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By Meira Faratci

The University of Haifa has inaugurated the Leon Charney School of Marine Sciences, the first in the world to integrate research in marine biology, marine geophysics, marine and coastal history, and marine civilization.

The establishment of the school on Tuesday was made possible by an $8 million donation from the chairman of the university's board of governors, Leon Charney. Marine biology studies at the school will include research on micro-organisms, algae, and marine animal behavior conducted in the bodies of water surrounding Israel.

The marine geophysics department will investigate how to best utilize the country's 300 kilometers of coastline.

An exploration of the archaeological and geological aspects of Israel's oceans and rivers will be conducted by the department of marine and coastal history.

Most unique to the university, the department of marine civilization will focus on the sociological influences of marine environments on the societies which they surround.

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From Typically Spanish

A schooner carrying the sarcophagus is thought to have sunk in waters off Cartagena in 1838.

Egypt wants to search for the sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Menkaure in Spanish waters off Cartagena, and finance is already being assembled for the project.

The EFE news agency quotes sources in the Egyptian government, with the General Secretary of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said that the National Geographic channel had been asked to help in funding the search.

They wanted to employ Robert Ballard, the man who found the Titanic, to lead the search.

The sarcophagus went down when the schooner Beatrice went down when it was being taken with other pieces to the British Museum in London in 1838.

The sarcophagus had been found in 1837 by the British archaeologist Howard Vyse.

From Perth Now

Two men are facing possible jail terms over an unregistered scheme to fund hunts for shipwrecked treasure, which cost Australian investors more than $600,000.

Christopher Paul Woolgrove, 44, and James Lawrence Phillips, 38, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court earlier this year to one count each of operating an unregistered investment scheme.

At a sentencing hearing today the same court was told the pair established a scheme entitled the Hatcher Unit Trust (HUT) to raise more than $US2 million ($A2.1 million) to help fund a series of operations to find shipwrecks across the globe and salvage them.

In an information memoranda distributed to would be investors in 2001 and 2002, the HUT makes a series of baseless claims, including that "15 per cent of all gold found by man over the past 6,000 years is lying at the bottom of the ocean."

"It also claimed it has been calculated that if all the lost treasure and items of value could be recovered from the ocean and its wealth evenly distributed, every man, woman and child on earth could live comfortably for the rest of their lives."

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