NASSAU, BAHAMAS — National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said the Minnis administration issued an underwater salvage license with unsatisfactory terms to an explorer.
He said the Davis administration will review the license, which is expected to be up for renewal soon.
Munroe, responding to a question at the Office of the Prime Minister’s briefing on Friday, did not identify the recipient of the license.
However, Minnis administration officials have said in the past that they gave a license to Carl Allen, owner of Walker’s Cay. Under that licensing agreement, the explorer and the government are supposed to split proceeds from the treasure hunt.
“There was one (license) granted in the former administration,” Munroe said.
“The whole way it operates is unsatisfactory. It’s always unsatisfactory when somebody comes and says this is yours without any sort of way to audit, confirm or evaluate whether what they are giving you is truly what you’re entitled to.
“When the (Bahamas Wildlife Enforcement Network) BOWEN was formulated, treasure is a natural resource. It is in our waters, it belongs to the Bahamian people and (BOWEN) is really an agency that’s going to be multi-faceted for every natural resource, every single one and it’s just so that we get value out of our natural resources.
“And so while the prime minister chases down that issue, before you do it, that has to be something where you set up proper protocol as to how we determine that you found something. We shouldn’t have to trust you on that, cuz I could always tell you I’ve found nothing.
“And when you start taking stuff out, exactly what (have you) taken up? We’re not satisfied with what was advanced as the percentages and so there will be some more work on that. But for any outstanding one it is expected that we will have more robust enforcement of what belongs to us.”
Munroe said to his knowledge the explorer has indeed found treasure.
“The troubling thing as I say is when people come and tell you I found something, this is your share,” he said.
In an interview with a magazine earlier this year, Allen said his team has located the debris field from the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Maravillas, a Spanish galleon that went down in 1956.
He said so far they have brought up silver, gold coins and, biggest of all, “an emerald-encrusted broach” and “an intricately carved gold chain that’s about 11 feet long.”
He told Marlin Magazine that all treasure and artifacts will remain in the Bahamas.
