Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for Plucky Misfits and Problem Solvers.

I'm your host, Andrew Heaton.

Last week was a heavy episode on gun policy, twice as long as usual usual plus a lot of math and about 15% more feelings

than usual so this week we're going to go a little bit lighter we're going to

take the show in the direction of a fun

romp. We're going to speak with a treasure hunter about the politics of

treasure hunting. Because it turns out there is a lot of lost, ill-gotten gold scattered all over the ocean floor.

Billions of dollars of it in fact fact but if you happen to find a

treasure chest of gold down there in the briny deep you may not legally own it

it turns out the politics of treasure hunting and maritime law is complicated.

Let's say you stumble upon a 300 year old Spanish juggernaut.

Do you get to keep that gold?

Or is it still the property of the Spanish Navy?

What about all those cool haunted pirate skeletons?

Do you at least get to keep some of the ribs?

That would seem fair to me.

Museums get dibs on the skulls, but I get to keep one rib per skeleton.

Although if I'm being completely honest here, most treasure hunters are principally concerned with gold ownership,

so we'll mostly talk about gold today and who owns it. We'll talk

about the politics and laws regarding it, flotsam and jetsam regulations, maritime law,

international treaties regarding the extent of ocean territory, and the rules about

recovered historical artifacts.

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