Title 54, Ports and Maritime Matters

Any person, not empowered, who shall enter or try to enter forcibly on board any ship or vessel stranded or cast away or in distress or molest in the preservation thereof may be repelled by force. And any person who shall carry away or secrete any goods and effects saved as afore…

Any magistrate on information, upon oath, of any part of cargo or effects of any vessel lost or stranded on or near the seacoasts being unlawfully conveyed or concealed or of some cause or reasonable suspicion thereof may issue his warrant for searching for such goods or effects …

Any person discovering where any such goods are wrongfully bought, sold or concealed, so that the owner, his agent or attorney, shall regain them, shall be entitled to a reasonable salvage, not exceeding twenty-five per cent on the value, to be adjusted by the next neighboring ma…

If any person shall offer or expose for sale any goods or effects whatsoever belonging to any ship or vessel lost, stranded or cast on shore as aforesaid and unlawfully taken away or reasonably suspected to have been, the person to whom such goods or effects shall be so offered f…

This article may be cited as the South Carolina Underwater Antiquities Act of 1991.

As used in this article: (1) "Artifact", "artifactual item", or "artifactual material" means any object or assemblage of objects found in an archaeological context which yields or is likely to yield information of significance to the scientific study of human prehistory, history,…

(A) All submerged archaeological historic property and artifacts and all submerged paleontological property located on or recovered from submerged lands over which the State has sovereign control, are declared to be the property of the State. (B) Title to submerged archaeological…

(A) The custodian of submerged archaeological historic property and artifacts owned by the State or on state submerged lands is the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology may promulgate regulations as…

(A) A person desiring to conduct activities pursuant to this article in the course of which submerged archaeological historic properties or paleontological properties may be removed, displaced, or destroyed shall apply to the institute for a license to conduct the activity. If th…

A person may inspect, study, explore, photograph, measure, record, conduct a reconnaissance survey, use magnetic or acoustic detection devices, or otherwise use and enjoy a submerged archaeological historic property and/or submerged paleontological property without being required…

(A) A person desiring to conduct temporary, intermittent, recreational, small scale, noncommercial search and recovery of submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological property shall apply for a hobby license from the institute. Any person collecting fro…

(A) The institute may issue an intensive survey license or a data recovery license. Each license is exclusive to the applicant so that, for the duration of the license and any applicable exclusive interest period, the institute may not issue a license to any other person for the …

(A) The institute may issue an exclusive license for the excavation or disturbance of submerged archaeological historic property and submerged paleontological property on submerged lands over which the State has sovereign control to any person or entity for the time and under the…

(A) The institute shall consider at least the following criteria when determining whether or not to issue an exclusive license: (1) the degree of archaeological, anthropological, historical, paleontological, and scientific importance and public educational potential of the propos…

(A)(1) The institute may approve an exclusive license application from a commercial applicant but delay issuance of the license until the following conditions have been satisfied within a time period determined by the institute: (a) the applicant has designated and, if required, …

(A) Each license issued by the institute must contain at least the following provisions: (1) the duration of the license; (2) the boundaries of the area in which the work will be undertaken; (3) a description of the scope of work to be undertaken by the licensee and, if a data re…

For each license issued by the State Underwater Archaeologist the following provisions also apply: (1)(a) The assignment of additional personnel or any change in the personnel from that scheduled in the application to perform the work is subject to prior approval by the institute…

(A) The conditions set forth in this section for intensive survey licenses apply in addition to the terms and conditions for all licenses. (B)(1) The institute may issue an intensive survey license for up to a defined one square mile area. (2)(a) The institute may issue an intens…

(A) The conditions established in this section for data recovery licenses apply in addition to the terms and conditions for all licenses established in Sections 54-7-670 through 54-7-730. (B)(1) An applicant may not be issued more than one license at a time for a single submerged…

Upon the written request of the licensee, or if considered necessary by the institute, the institute may issue a modification to the license that can add, delete, or modify provisions contained in the license if the modification is consistent with this article. (1) The institute …

If the finder of a wreck is other than the licensed salvor (commercial applicant), the finder must receive twenty-five percent of the licensed salvor's share.

(A) A license is not required of the institute for any undertaking otherwise requiring a license under this article. (B) A license is not required of the museum for any undertaking involving paleontological property otherwise required under this article.

(A) The institute may suspend operations under a license at any time for just cause if it has reason to believe that the terms and provisions of a license or other applicable law or regulation are being violated. Within ten days of the suspension, the State Underwater Archaeologi…

(A)(1) A person who violates any of the provisions of Section 54-7-650(G), 54-7-660, or 54-7-670 is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars. If a person holds a hobby license issued under these sections, the license …

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person may excavate or salvage any sunken warship submerged in the waters of the Atlantic ocean within three miles of the South Carolina coast where there are, or it is believed that there are, human remains without the approval of t…

(A) The institute reserves the right to retain and distribute for research or educational purposes data provided to the institute under this article. All archaeological and paleontological records of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and the South Carol…

Nothing in this article may be construed to limit or prohibit the use of privately-owned land by its owner or require the owner to obtain a license required by this article for any activity on his privately-owned land.

The institute shall: (1) establish and maintain an educational program for the training of interested members of the public in the identification, recordation, and registration of submerged archaeological historic property and certify those who have successfully completed such tr…

All license fees received by the institute pursuant to this article may be retained without regard to the fiscal year of receipt and must be used only to implement this article.