DATELINE: 6 February 2003

DIVERS PRAISED FOR CHANGING BEHAVIOUR BY RECEIVER OF WRECK

Sophia Exelby, the Receiver of Wreck has praised the way divers have responded to the Wreck Amnesty, and presented evidence of changing diver behaviour at her Annual General Meeting.
The Receiver was presenting a report on her first year in office at the end of January 2003 and chose to highlight the relationship with divers. "There have been a number of positive outcomes from the Wreck Amnesty. Many of those who reported for the first time during the Amnesty now do so on a regular basis. Divers are completing reports of wrecks more promptly and many dive clubs have now made a decision not to recover artefacts from wrecks in the future as confirmed by the drop in artefacts reported in 2002," she said.
The Receiver also reported that 95% of the reports - known as Droits - received during the Amnesty have been closed. The outstanding matters relate to complex or highly significant claims, and cases where the owners or finders have been late in responding to enquiries. There are ongoing negotiations over artefacts taken from the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow and from P&O liners.