I got a chance to have dinner with treasure hunters. They're absolutely wonderful and fantastic to talk to. And they have a great sense of humor about everything. I was somewhat disappointed that treasure hunting isn't as glamorous as it's made out to be in Hollywood movies, but oh well. :) You can't win everything, huh?

According to them, you have about a 1% chance of finding something valuable. Of course that means you hope that what you find after ninety-nine failed attempts is so big that you can recoup your cost and have some money left over to live off of or fund your next venture. You also need to know a lot of people, know your history, culture, etc. A lot of the stuff you haul from the ocean is from shipwrecks. Some of the examples the treasure hunters quoted were the big Spanish ships that had been taking silver from South America to Spain but somehow never made it to their final destination. And you also have Japanese ships that took gold from China, the Philippines, etc. during the last world war.

I soooooo wanna go treasure hunting…! (On the 100th and finally successful attempt, of course. ;) )