No, these pirates are not sailing ships. These folks are diving for them.
At the bottom of the Great Lakes, there's estimated to be up to 10,000 shipwrecks, all of which remain in remarkable condition due to the lakes’ cold temperatures and lack of salt water.
For decades into the 1980s, these wrecks were looted and plundered of their artifacts. Pieces like ship wheels were especially sought after.
Looters sometimes took pieces for their own private display while others created shipwreck museums with the artifacts they took.
But even if looting was generally frowned upon by professional divers at the time, the actual act of taking artifacts from shipwrecks only became illegal in 1980.
That year, sport divers who were tired of seeing historic vessels emptied of their contents banded together to push for legislation which created Michigan’s first underwater preserve — right off the coast of Alpena’s Thunder Bay.
Anyone who removed artifacts from a sunken vessel in a preserve without a permit could now be charged with a felony and face up to two years in prison.
Since then, Michigan has added 12 more preserves, a total area bigger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.
The wrecks are now considered historic sites. They are surveyed by divers from the Michigan State Troopers Marine Services Team.
There are less shipwreck thefts today with the awareness that the wrecks are historic sites.
New technology like underwater robotic vehicles and sonar are used to find lost wrecks and document their contents before any modern day pirate can take anything else.
