Mel Fisher

About Mel Fisher

Mel Fisher (August 21, 1922 – December 19, 1998) was an American treasure hunter best known for finding the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha. He discovered the wreck July 20, 1985. The estimated $450 million cache recovered, known as "The Atocha Motherlode," included 40 tons of gold and silver and some 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as "Pieces of Eight", gold coins, Colombian emeralds, golden and silver artifacts and 1000 silver bars. Large as it was, this was only roughly half of the treasure that went down with the Atocha. Still missing are 300 silver bars and 8 bronze cannons, among other things. Fisher's company, Salvors Inc., found remains of several shipwrecks in Florida waters, in addition to the Atocha, which include the sister galleon to the Atocha the Santa Margarita (both sunk in 1622). The company also found the remains of a slave ship known as the Henrietta Marie. The site of the wreckage of the Atocha, now referred to as "the Bank of Spain", is still being worked and treasures are slowly "floating" to the surface. Fisher was a former Indiana chicken farmer who struggled through decades of hard times treasure hunting in the Florida Keys. His confidence in finding the treasure was exhibited in his motto Today is the Day.

The treasure hunting activities by Fisher and other commercial enterprises lead to criticism from some underwater archaeologists, who stressed that underwater cultural material including ancient shipwrecks is not “treasure”, but “cultural heritage”. Mel Fisher hired Duncan Mathewson as chief archaeologist during the Atocha period and Salvors, Inc. became experts in proper recovery and conservation of underwater artifacts. They are still active to this day. Fisher was a pioneer in blending private and public interests when it comes to underwater cultural resources. Mel Fisher won in the Supreme Court of the United States the right to recover treasure. In Florida and the U.S., the effort to better protect submerged archaeological sites led finally to the adoption of the UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.