DATELINE: 22nd July 2001

BEMIS CHALLENGE
American commercial salvor Gregg Bemis is to challenge an international accord set up to ban diving on the wreck of the ferry Estonia, sunk in the Baltic in 1994 with the loss of 853 lives.
The Estonia Agreement 1995, signed by Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark and Britain, sought to prevent any interference with the wreck - even though it lies in international waters.
Bemis has already defied the ban. In 2000 his team examining the wreck at 70m, and found a hole near the waterline about 25m back from the bow, big enough for a diver to swim through. However, the bow visor was also found dislodged - a fact cited by a Scandinavian investigation commission as the cause of sinking.
Now Bemis wants to examine the wreck further and has challenged the legality of the Estonia Agreement.
"This agreement... is unprecedented in international law, ie The Law of the Sea Convention 1982," he says. "Such uncontrolled, highly partisan seizures of territory in international waters is contrary to any existing law or good stewardship of international relations."
His first step has been to file an appeal for judicial review with the Office of the Chancellor of Justice in Finland. the country was chosen as it put its name to the agreement, yet has a clear system for complaints against an authority or public official.
"Moves to restrict or ban diving on sites in international waters are not new," marine lawyer Mike Williams told Diver. "Under the International Salvage Convention, owners of such wrecks can prohibit salvage or other interference if it is reasonable to do so. But more unusual is where countries which are not the owners of international-waters wrecks attempt to restrict movements around them."

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