From time to time it is fun to look back to the Mother Lode days. To remember the hard times and also the glory days and everything that made Mel and Deo’s crewmembers and staff such a tight knit group.

Mel and Deo appreciated the hard word and allegiance that their staff provided for so many years before the Mother Lode was found. They stuck with them through all of the hard times, bankruptcies and court cases. Day in and day out they were on those boats working, many times without pay. It is because of their loyalty that Mel was able to realize his dream; he couldn’t have done it on his own.  
Read more and see photos here...

The 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Discovery of the Atocha Mother Lode was a huge success! Mel Fisher Days 2010 was bigger than it has ever been before.

This year we introduced our 1st Annual Mel Fisher Days Block Party with a free concert by Howard Livingston and the Mile Marker 24 Band. With the help of our friend CW Colt the two drew in record crowds and filled the street on the 200 block of Duval. Those who attended had a blast participating in the tricycle races; dunk tank and many other carnival games that were available.  
Read more and see photos here...

"The weather in Key West over the past weekend has been perfect for diving – flat calm warm waters (86 degrees water temp), sunny skies and no threat of tropical storms.

We invite you to join the adventure and come dive with us.

According to officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, if the Florida Keys get any effects from the non-contiguous patches of oil sheen currently in the Gulf Loop Current, they are expected to be in the form of small tar balls, not large amounts of aqueous oil as seen near the spill site.  Read more here...

"Good Morning America" weather anchor Sam Champion showcased the Florida Keys & Key West Monday, helping to counter misperceptions that the island chain has been physically impacted by the Gulf oil spill "These coasts are clear," said Champion as he waded off the beach at the Waldorf Astoria Casa Marina Resort, where the live broadcast originated. Live segments featured Keys watersports including paddleboarding and kayaking, music by the local band Monks of Phunk and a taste of Key lime pie with the Casa Marina's executive chef Erik Malzahn.
Read more here...

Kicking off the 2010 search and recovery season, underwater exploration divers for Keith Webb’s Blue Water Ventures Key West discovered a five-pound fused conglomeration of artifacts Wednesday afternoon, among which a number of sea-blackened silver “pieces of eight” treasure coins are clearly identifiable. Returning to port from sea late Friday night, Captain Dan Porter, Operations Manager for BWV, said that it won’t be known exactly how many of the hundreds-of-years-old coins are in the calcareous concretion until the mass has undergone conservation.
Read more here...

Over the weekend we were able to spend some time getting to know Mark Gordon, COO of Odyssey Marine. Mark and his wife Sue made a trip to Key West to celebrate his birthday, which kicked off with a Danger Charters Wind and Wine sunset sail charted exclusively for the event and attended by marine exploration colleagues from Mel Fishers Treasures, Blue Water Ventures, Artificial Reefs of the Keys, Historic Research and Certification, Inc., Florida Straits Diving, Digital Island Media, and Diveguru.net. Kim and Sean Fisher joined the group along with Gary Randolph and Archaeologist Jim Sinclair to exchange treasure-hunting techniques and discuss industry details and initiatives. Read more here...

Nearly 400 years before Keith Webb’s Blue Water Ventures—joint-venture partner of Mel Fishers Treasures—began searching for the remains of the 1622 fleet shipwreck Santa Margarita in the Florida Straits, two 17th century salvors, Captain Gaspar de Vargas and Havana businessman Francisco Núñez Melián, used Florida "Indians" and pearl divers from the Caribbean island of Margarita to recover treasure from the sunken galleon. On April 21, 2010, BWV diver Gavin Rall (left, with Capt Dan Porter, right) surfaced with this carved, polished greenstone artifact.

Read more here...

Last Friday Mel Fisher’s Treasures in Key West held our first ever VIP event for the World Sailfish Championship participants. Guests were invited to tour the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society after hours while enjoying cocktails and hors d’oeuvres prepared by the Fisher family and staff. The evening was very well attended with nearly 200 guests who were excited to learn the history of the Atocha and hold 400 year old artifacts in their hands. Those who were familiar with the story were intrigued to discover the operation is still ongoing and they too could be a part of the hunt! 

Read more here...

"Relay for Life" for cancer victims, fighters, and survivors

Mel Fishers Treasures awarded a 1715 coin to the each of the top winnera in Mens and Womens East Coast Champions in the National Scholastic Surfers Competition Sunday, April 11, 2010. Little did most of the surfers know they were surfing over shipwrecks.......for more information, visit

http://www.nssa.org 

Read more here...

Yesterday we checked in with Captain Andy about the scheduled maintenance he and his crew have been working on in the dry dock. As we arrived all of the crewmembers had paint rollers in hand and were working on one of the layers of bottom paint. Captain Andy explained that they alternate paint colors they are able to keep track of what coat they are on. If you reference the picture: the first coat was gray, the white you see is the second coat and the gray you see is the third coat. The final coat will be black. The side of the vessel will, of course, be painted “Magruder Blue” which I’m told is what the guys at the local paint shop also now call that shade of blue. Read more here...

We will be exhibiting at the 2010 Adventure Travel Expo in Chicago at the Donald Steven's Convention Center. The show runs from March 19-20. We have complimentary tickets so if you are interested in stopping by the show please send an email to skwiley@melfisher.com and we can connect in Chicago! For more information on the show check out their website www.adventureexpo.com

Do you have unique Mel Fisher's Treasures photos?

We are putting together a presentation to be shown during our Investor Division Week this year and would like to include some great photographs. We are looking for images from 1986-present of major finds, media events, interesting dive shots, basically anything exciting involving the Mel Fisher's Treasures operation.
Please send them to skwiley@melfisher.com no later than March 19, 2010.

"Mel Fisher’s Treasures will enter World Sailfish Championship"

Key West, FL January 29, 2010 – Mel Fisher’s Treasures is a historic shipwreck salvage company credited with discovering the most famous shipwreck in history, the Atocha, which is valued at $500 million to date. This Spring Mel Fisher’s will cross industries to enter the World Sailfish Championship Tournament hosted in their hometown of Key West, Florida. Read more here...

"Cantore's Stories"

In October 2009, Jim Cantore and a film crew from the Weather Channel visited Key West to shoot footage for a series of short episodes called "Cantore's Stories." As part of this series, Mel Fisher's Treasures is featured discussing the history of the Atocha along with Mel Fisher's epic hunt and landmark discovery of the Atocha motherlode. Through interviews with Sean Fisher, the video also goes into information about the ongoing search for the remaining half of the Atocha's still undiscovered treasure.Cantore's Stories debut is scheduled for February 13th at 10 pm. Subsequent airings are likely but not yet scheduled. Set your DVR today, as we are told it is unlikely a hard copy will be available. Visit TWC's website for more information

The Science of Treasure Hunting

In this forum, Sean Fisher will discuss the many facets of the search and the technology used to make that search possible. Technology has always played a key role in historic shipwreck salvage, and over the years Fisher has seen the field move beyond simple mechanical innovation to GPS, anomaly location technology, and charting and mapping advances. These technological innovations have continually increased the efficiency of historic shipwreck salvors.

Visit USC website for more information

The Dare in Dry-dock for One Week

Each year during the winter months when the weather conditions are often windy and not conducive to treasure hunting, Mel Fisher’s crew takes time to perform necessary maintenance work to our fleet of treasure salvage vessels. By doing minor repairs and routine maintenance work each year, the boats are able to avoid more costly major overhauls.

This past weekend, the Dare was hauled from the water into dry dock at Robbie’s Marina on Stock Island not far from where the boats are usually docked. View Entire Story Here.

History Making Diver Visits Mel Fisher’s Treasures

Matt Johnston is the world’s first quadriplegic person on a ventilator to go scuba diving. Today he visited Mel Fisher’s Treasures and received a VIP tour of the conservation lab and museum.

Key West, FL January 13, 2010 – This morning Mel Fisher’s Treasures had a visit from a very inspirational diving enthusiast. In 2006 at the age of 29 according to his website “after a lifelong battle with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and a near three year pursuit of his dream, Matt achieved a HUGE first for the adaptive scuba community, being the first ventilator dependent individual in the world to dive in the ocean.”  View Entire Story Here.

Hello Treasure Hunters!

Many of you have been inquiring about the treasure hunt Ron Shore spoke about at the division party in May. Today we received a press release about the book and as promised we are passing the information on to you. Good Luck!

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada- The book, The World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt: Quest for the Golden Eagle, will be released February 1, 2010. The grand prize, a $1 Million solid gold eagle, is hidden somewhere in the world.  
View Entire Story Here.

Mel Fisher’s Treasures was recently contacted by USA Today in regards to a story featuring family run businesses. After preliminary phone interviews a reporter came to the keys to spend two days in mid-November learning more about how the company is run and what exactly we do. She learned about our unique investment program where individuals can actually live out their dreams and become treasure hunters on the most famous shipwreck in history. In addition they receive an actual division of treasure at the end of the year where they are provided with their percentage of the treasure found during that calendar year.  View Entire Story Here.

Capt. Dan Porter of Keith Webb’s Blue Water Ventures Key West uses his cell phone to photograph a reliquary pendant found Monday afternoon at the wreck site of the Santa Margarita, the sister ship of the Atocha. Both ships were lost in a hurricane in 1622. The pendant is about 1½ inches tall and has a clear window allowing the display of small religious artifacts. Ultra-thin gold foil with as-yet-unidentified markings remain inside the tiny compartment. Also found Monday were two musketlike rifles that were completely covered with coral.  View Entire Story Here.

The Today Show filmed with Mel Fisher’s Treasures here in Key West. Al Roker, one of the show’s hosts, dove the Atocha wreck site with Kim and Sean Fisher during a pre-show film shoot on Saturday July 25. He dove along side our treasure hunters and saw first hand the excitement that is involved in recovering treasure from the most famous shipwreck in history. During his first dive Al, with the help of a metal detector, found two Atocha silver coins! He then made a trip to Emerald City to sift for beautiful, green Columbian Emeralds that had been lost at sea since 1622 when the Atocha sank. During his two hour search he was able to uncover 3 emeralds from the site! The Today Show aired live from Key West Tueday July 28 from 7-11am on The Westin property.  View Entire Story and Video Here.

Mel Fisher's Treasures and the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum have joined together to initiate a project that will allow all Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award winners' handprints to be displayed in one central location, the Mel Fisher Museum Courtyard.

The Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to a person who has shown incredible perseverance in accomplishing a life-long goal, which motivates and inspires others to do the same. This person is also someone influential in the life and ambitions of Mel Fisher himself.  View Entire Story and Video Here.

Each time one of our salvage vessels returns from a trip to one of the shipwreck sites they immediately bring tagged and numbered artifacts back to the conservation lab. At our headquarters on Greene Street the transfer is made from our salvage teams to our conservation team. Each artifact is accounted for by number and checked into the conservation lab one at a time. Each artifact is kept in wet storage to avoid further deterioration as they await their turn to be conserved.  View Entire Story and Video Here.

It is widely known that the salvage operations at Mel Fisher’s Treasures are world class. It is proven again by the request for the Salvage Vessels J.B. Magruder and DARE to be the only two support vessels for the massive undertaking of sinking the 522 foot-long USS Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg as the next artificial reef in the Florida Keys.

The sinking is tentatively scheduled between May 26 and June 1 with a likely date of May 27th, weather dependent of course. According the Key West Citizen, “Each of 42 chargers totaling 179 pounds of explosive material will create 3 million pounds of pressure per square inch, tearing 42 holes in the hull of the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg below the water line.” This will cause her to sink landing upright appearing on the bottom of the ocean ...  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

The crew of the Magruder created a mini version of the Magruder to enter into the Minimal Regatta race at the Schooner Wharf over the weekend. Contestants used a kit which cost $27 and included a roll of duct tape, a thin piece of ply wood, two two-by-fours and a pound of nails to create small boats to paddle around a course mapped out in Key West Harbor. In an unfortunate turn of events the mini-Magruder sunk before it could leave the start line but it sure did make an entertaining entry into the race with mini mailboxes and mini tire bumpers included.

Sean Fisher has been re-elected as the Crown Prince of the Conch Republic! In the election event held at the Green Parrot he lent his fundraising efforts to help a great cause. A $1 donation was collected for each vote that was cast during the elections and benefited the Conch Republic Children's Fund.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

Gary Hepburn, a Canadian investor with Mel Fisher’s Treasures, was contacted in April by Robin Botting, a member of Rainbow’s End Metal Detectors Association (REMDA) in Hamilton, and asked to talk to their group about his adventures in treasure hunting.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

On a recent trip up north to visit family, I was provided a wonderful opportunity to share the story of Mel Fisher ‘s discovery of over $400 million dollars in treasure lost during the tragic sinking of the Atocha with 17 second grade students at Walnut Grove Elementary in Olathe, KS. The second grade teacher, Mrs. Berthelsen, (my sister) shared information about recent treasure finds with her students after I called her excited with all the latest news.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

The Magruder crew made it out in between bouts of bad weather and found nearly 500 musket balls! They were found on an extension of the Atocha trail that Captain Andy and his crew have been working throughout the summer and into the fall months. Finding these artifacts indicates we are on the right trail and where there are remnants of the shipwreck and her cargo there will be gold.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

Thursday October 30, 2008 was the start of what will be the annual Captain Tony Days. Sean Fisher was on hand knighting attendees as the Crown Prince of the Conch Republic, standing in for his Grandfather Mel who was the King of the Conch Republic.

We are sad to say that the festivities were held just two days before Captain Tony passed away at the Lower Keys Medical Center at the age of 92 surrounded by his family and friends. He leaves behind a strong legacy here in Key West and will be greatly missed.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

For the past few weeks a film crew from Al Roker Productions has been out at the wreck site filming on the J.B. Magruder and the Blue Water Rose for a one hour special which will air sometime in February on TruTV. The film crew has been immensely enjoying their time getting to know the personalities of our divers as well as the intricacies of treasure hunting. They are beginning to see it takes incredible patience, very dedicated hard work on the part of our crewmembers and captains and the true belief that the Sterncastle of the Atocha and the remains of the Santa Margarita will be found TODAY.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

An interesting story written by Kevin Taylor and included on www.britishboxing.net was brought to our attention by Jean Thornton, long time Fisher family friend and investor. The story describes how Mel Fisher's persistance and positive attitude inspires people to this day.

On Friday the 13th Buzz Wagner, the Director of Research for the Chamber of Commerce in Key West, headed out to the Atocha wreck site with his long time friend Bill Carroll. Bill flew in all the way from Philadelphia, PA to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity. Buzz’s sincere interest and excitement about Mel Fisher’s operation lead him to bid on the trip during the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society’s Radio Auction. Lucky for him his was the winning bid and his generosity enabled him to do what few are able to do; dive on the most famous shipwreck site in history.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

Investors started arriving over a week before the big party at the Casa Marina. They began taking daily trips out to the wreck site to go diving on the newly renovated DARE and emerald hunting on the J.B. Magruder. Check out the boat happenings page to see how successful the week truly was! Boat_Happenings2008.asp

Monday night at our Welcome reception we had an amazing turnout of investors who came early in the week to enjoy all of the festivities. The Fisher Family, staff and investors were able to visit with familiar friends and meet new ones in the courtyard of the museum. Jean Boyle, our Gift Shop Manager, put together a delicious array of appetizers while Sandy tended bar with the help of Jan and Ray. Steel drums in the background gave a fun, whimsical island feel to the party and everyone seemed to have a great time catching up and filling each other in on the past year’s happenings. As evening came to an end all left smiling knowing that this was just the first event of the week and there would be many more nights of fun to come!  View Entire Story Here.

Today was a big day for everyone here at Mel Fisher’s Treasures. As is customary each year we appeared along with our faithful attorneys Professor William Vandercreek and Gene Lewis before Federal Judge King for the Adjudication of Title for the treasures recovered on the Atocha and Margarita wreck sites in the year 2007.  View Entire Story Here.

The “Dare” has been undergoing extensive upgrades and repairs since it was hauled out of the water November 28, 2007.  View Photos of the Work and Details Here.

The crew of Good Morning America ventured down to the Treasure Coast last week to spend some time learning about treasure hunting. The 1715 Plate Fleet was the focus of their weekend special. Taffi Fisher- Abt and her family also made a trip to the Good Morning America studios this past weekend and brought priceless treasure artifacts with them to share with the country during their live broadcast.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

There is a lot of work to be done in the conservation process aside from electrolysis. Immediately after an artifact is taken out of the electrolysis tank it is tested for chlorides, if any are detected then it is placed back into electrolysis. After we are sure the chlorides have been completely extracted, the item is placed in several different distilled water baths over the course of 2-3 weeks to leech the sodium carbonate out of the metal.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

We would like to give a brief update on the status of the pearls that were found this past summer on the Blue Water Rose, our joint-venture partner. We have started the very beginning stages of the conservation process and the pearls are currently going through desalination.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

The 28th of November was a big day for the DARE and her crew. At 10 am Captain Jose "Papo" Garcia navigated the harbor around sunken boats and through a small opening to get to the boat lift that would pull the 83.5', 90-ton vessel out of the water into the boatyard.

Crewmembers and boatyard employees slowly moved the boat into position over-top the slings and with one guy in the water began to tighten the slings around the bottom of the DARE. The man stayed in the water as the lift began to pull the DARE out of the water and a few adjustments were made using hand signals to make sure she came out of the water straight and level. The tires strained under the weight of the boat but there were no glitches in the process and the DARE was lifted easily out of the water.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

An interesting part of the archaeological process that most people may not be aware of is the trip to the hospital that they sometimes take. That’s right, last week 13 artifacts from Mel Fisher’s Treasures’ conservation lab took a trip to the Lower Keys Medical Center to undergo CAT Scans. Why? Because sometimes it is critical to know where exactly the artifact is inside of the concretion and how much of the metal is actually left, if any at all. As you may recall in a previous article we talked about how the encrustation could be used as a mold if the artifact itself had completely eroded over the years. By performing a CAT Scan on the encrusted object (mainly swords, arquebus and other unique items) the conservationist is able to know where the metal is inside the encrusted object and can then figure the best way to approach conservation of these very delicate artifacts without destroying any portion of the metal.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

Due to the extreme number of Encrusted Objects that have been found this summer I thought it might be interesting to take a little bit closer look at the conservation process for these items. When an Encrusted Object is found the archaeological process begins. As with any other artifact found on the wreck sites the boat captain will number, tag and record each item and the coordinates of where it was found. Upon returning to shore the artifacts are brought back to the conservation lab and are checked in by John Corcoran, our Senior Conservator and the boat Captain one by one. They are then placed in wet storage to avoid interaction with the air, which would harm the artifact until we have a chance to work on them.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

As many of you know this summer has yielded many artifacts on both the Atocha and Margarita sites. Because of this our Senior Conservator, John Corcoran has been extraordinarily busy taking care of the many items the boats have been bringing in. There have been numerous Encrusted Objects (EOs) brought in; which are items that have a thick concretion on them and we are unsure of what exactly they are before conservation. It is John’s job to determine if the artifact is salvageable or if it has already completely eroded away while sitting on the ocean floor. In this case it is better to use the encrustation as a mold for a replica of the original artifact.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

Mel Fisher’s Treasures hosted our first Bike Wash during bike week and The Poker Run here in Key West this past weekend. While Friday was a bit slow because everyone was just getting into town and getting settled into their hotels, Saturday was a completely different story. We washed bikes 4 at a time for the entire scheduled length of the bike wash, plus some.  View Entire Story and Photos Here.

The Canadian film crew from Arcadia Productions is back in town this week getting more footage for the hour long show they are producing. The piece was originally only supposed to be 15 minutes long but has turned into a full hour show of its own. The crew was here when the Blue Water Rose found all of the gold and pearls in June and couldn't resist coming back for more. After diving out at the wreck site yesterday this afternoon they are flying high over the Atocha wreck site in a helicopter getting some aerial shots of the Magruder. The show will be one of seven hour long shows in a series called "Go Deep". It will air in Canada on the History Channel and in the United States on the Discovery Channel. It is set to air this fall, so keep an eye out for more information. Today's the Day!

Akira Hyatt, a gemologist from the New York office of the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) has come to Key West to assist Gary Randolph, Jim Sinclair and Duncan Mathewson with the examination of the Margarita Pearl collection and to help us in structuring a plan to take 30 selected pearls to their lab in NY for some non-destructive analysis and testing. They will then be giving us a report on their condition and any impurities that may have leached into the pearls, possibly from the lead box in which they where found so that we will have a better idea on how to conserve and stabilize them properly. This first batch of 30 pearls will be our test case and once the GIA’s testing and reports are complete, our conservation process can be implemented and evaluated. Once the first batch has been put through the conservation procedure, we will check our results and continue to do the rest as long as we haven’t encountered any problems with the conservation processes we decide to use. Our sorting and counting of the pearls is continuing and it has becoming apparent that our initial estimates of 2,000 pearls where a bit low. We are currently over that number and have not even started counting the smaller pearls as of today. This will most likely take another week or two to complete the sorting and counting of this extremely rare collection of pearls.  View Photos Here.