When novice divers discover wrecks, archaeology is democratized. A danger with democracy, of course, is that someone might try to abuse the system and claim the rules don't also apply to them. Last April, 3 novice divers were clearing lobster pots for a fisherman in British waters. According to Paul Stratford, one of the divers, "We went down there expecting to get some fishing junk and found a huge anchor. Visibility was poor but we kept finding cannon after cannon." Those canon are believed to belong to the warship HMS Resolution, a 70-gun vessel that sunk in 1703. The 121-foot-long, 885-ton wreck lies in roughly 30 feet of water about one-and-a-half miles offshore in Pevensey Bay.

Today -- in an effort to deter rogue divers from raiding the site and abusing the system -- England's Culture Minister David Lammy will announce that the remains have protected status and that no divers are allowed within 300 feet of it, until such time as archaeologists have confirmed its identity.