CHANNEL ISLANDS : 7 Divers Fined in Shipwreck Lootings

Seven Los Angeles-area scuba divers have been fined for removing artifacts from two historic shipwrecks off the Channel Islands, ending criminal and civil proceedings that began in 1987 when the government led an undercover investigation aboard a charter boat out of Santa Barbara.

The defendants, who face fines of from $1,000 to $100,000, removed hundreds of artifacts from the Winfield Scott and the Goldenhorn in the Channel Islands National Park, according to an administrative law judge with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The federal civil prosecutions were brought by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and were based on NOAA regulations that prohibit damaging or removing historical artifacts from park waters.

The men have until Nov. 16 to appeal the charges, said Ted Beuttler, an attorney with the NOAA.

While six of the divers received fines of $10,000 or less, the judge fined Jack Dean Ferguson $100,000, saying that as the dive master, he bore special responsibility, and while aboard the boat had “mocked the law and by his actions and words encouraged all of the violations committed.”

The Winfield Scott, a Gold Rush-era passenger vessel off Anacapa Island, and the Goldenhorn, an iron cargo carrier near Santa Rosa Island, are among 13 historical wrecks that have been found within one nautical mile of the Channel Islands. Park service officials believe that about 22 additional wrecks remain to be found.

The judge’s Oct. 17 decision ended three years of legal proceedings that began when the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and the NOAA sent undercover divers aboard a boat chartered by members of the California Wreck Divers, a Los Angeles-based club.

Their investigation also led to criminal action against the divers.

Of the 32 divers who faced criminal charges filed in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, 26 pleaded guilty, paying fines of up to $750, two cases were dismissed, one resulted in a mistrial and three failed to appear in court, said Jack Fitzgerald, the park’s chief ranger, who summarized the cases for the park.

Of the 20 people facing civil charges in federal court, 13 settled and were fined up to $10,000. It took more than two years to reach a decision on the cases of the remaining seven, Beuttler said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Fitzgerald said. “If people go to a national park or marine sanctuary and their intention is to remove objects . . . they do so at their own risk of very severe financial and criminal penalties.”