Company History

 

KIM FISHER
Kim Fisher

Kim Fisher carries on his father's tradition, starting each day with an encouraging "Today's the Day" for his family, crews and staff. He continues Mel's unwavering quest for lost treasures and the constant pursuit and development of new treasure hunting techniques, as well as maintaining a world-class conservation laboratory to ensure that the treasures live on for generations.

As befits his heritage, Kim Fisher began diving as a youngster and by the age of 16 was the trusted captain of the dive vessel, "Southwind", used as a recovery vessel in the early days of the salvage of the Spanish Galleon, "Nuestra Senora de Atocha". He has expert knowledge in all phases of cultural heritage recovery. In addition to being a diver and captain, Kim is adept in the use of the various electronic instruments used in the search for sunken vessels, such as the magnetometer, sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler.

Kim interrupted his treasure-hunting career to get his B.S. degree in business administration from Central Michigan University. He attended the Florida State University School of Law for two years, but returned to assist the family's cultural heritage recovery efforts and has continued in this occupation since.

Today, Kim is the President/CEO of the various Mel Fisher Family Enterprises. He has been a dedicated member and leader of the Mel Fisher treasure hunting team for over 30 years.


TAFFI FISHER ABT
Taffi Fisher

Taffi Fisher Abt is the youngest child of World Famous Treasure Hunters Mel and Dolores Fisher. She has worked in various aspects of the family businessand serves on the Board of Directors for the Fisher Family enterprises. She was the President of Mel Fisher Center, Inc., directed the 1715 Fleet East Coast Shipwreck Project and oversees the Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum as well as the Conservation Laboratory in Sebastian, Florida.

Taffi directed the salvage operations, conservation and documentation, cataloging and curating of the artifacts of the 1715 Treasure Fleet. She is Chairperson of the Division Committee of the Mel Fisher Family Companies. She is an editor of Institute of Marine Archaeology and Conservation, www.IMACdigest.org, an online publication of marine archeology. She is also an advocate for the salvage community serving on the Historic Shipwreck Salvage Policy Counsel (HSSPC). Additionally, she advocates for Awareness of Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Children www.haveaheartformichael.org.

She attended the Florida Keys Community College on a scholarship where she studied business. She continues her education with classes at Indian River Community College and is involved in the digital archiving of films, literature, photographs, artifacts, and databases relating to her parents legacy.

Taffi resides in Sebastian, Florida with her husband Michael and her son Melvin. She has five children and two granddaughters and a grandson.


GARY RANDOLPH
Gary Randollph


Gary Randolph is the Vice President and Director of Operations for Mel Fisher's Treasures.

Gary started working for Mel Fisher in 1995 and became the Captain of the 90' salvage vessel "J.B. Magruder" on December 1, 1995, a mere eleven months after signing on to its crew as a diver. On his first trip as captain, they recovered a gold coin and a gold chain - which was the best gift this talented young captain could hope for on his December 11th birthday! People who work with Gary have said on many occasions, he is definitely not afraid to make the sacrifices it takes to pursue his dreams.

In 1997, Gary's hard work and dedication earned him the position of Operations Manager. His previous experience with computers has made him invaluable on land, as well as on sea, as the network administrator and computer guru for the office. He is also responsible for the conservation lab and is diligent in assuring the careful preservation of all artifacts being recovered from the Atocha and Margarita wreck sites. In the late 1990's his computer background has also assisted him in using the MS Access program to develop and format one of the most comprehensive Marine Archaeological Artifact Databases in existence. As technology developed, this database was used as the foundation to create the current Mel Fisher SQL based database which houses nearly 200,000 artifact records and is available to the world via the on-line version at www.melfisherartifacts.com

In 2002, Gary shifted his focus to running the survey vessel "Huntress" and developing the computer controlled survey equipment and mapping programs in an effort to help locate the remaining structure and cargo of the "Atocha" and "Margarita." He has personally surveyed thousands of miles of sea bottom using magnetometers, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profilers as well as processing the raw data to create detailed charts of the results.

In recent years Gary has been honing his skills as the Expedition Leader for a number of ultra-deep water missions to locate historic shipwreck sites in water depths beyond 5000 meters. He has planned, budgeted and executed the largest deep ocean side scan survey for historic period shipwrecks ever done. Most recently he's led multiple expeditions to locate and identify a number of these targets using remotely operated vehicles to locate, document and successfully recover artifacts from these ultra-deep shipwrecks. Admiralty actions under the laws of salvage and finds have been successful on these recoveries in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Gary is currently leading the design and engineering team that constructed "Dolores", a 1000m rated HAUV (hybrid autonomous underwater vehicle) that has been custom built for the search and identification of historic shipwrecks. He has had hands-on experience in assembling, testing and piloting this amazing vehicle and will continue to develop its capabilities going forward.

Gary is extremely well liked and highly respected by all who work with him. He and his wife Linda have become a much-loved and integral part of the Mel Fisher family.