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Newbie question - where is it legal

L

larryo

New member
Sorry this is a newbie question, but I am brand new to detecting (xmas present). I need to know if it is legal (ok) to metal detect on Alabama and Florida panhandle beaches without permission? Also what about the beachside parks (county maintained I think) in Alabama and Florida. Again, sorry about the inexperienced question but do not want to get anyone ticked off or loose my new detector before I have learned to use it. :)

Larry
 
I'm not sure about the panhandle, but I live in central florida and I know the east coast is protected, because of the treasure ships. As long as you don't go above the knees and you don't get on the dunes it's fine to search in between. And as long as the beach is not on federal property, or government property, you will be fine. I almost lost my first detector when I went to Cape Kennedy national seashores and didn't know about the laws. I'm telling you they don't play around either. As soon as I got out of our vehicle there was no one around so we went up the boardwalk to the beach and got there and started thinking funny about it, so we decided to go back to the car and go to the entrance and ask them if it was okay, as we started walking back, a park ranger pulled up and was very nasty about it and told us that we couldn't detect on any federal property. we got to keep our detector, but she wrote down our tag number and make of our vehicle, I guess so they would know if we were caught again.


krissy
 
Hi tiggyann, I read your post & was just curious...Why would the presence of sunken treasure ships be just-cause for the prohibition of metal detecting? Unless somebody has made a local discovery of the sunken remains, & secured the salvage rights,wouldn't that come under maritime law??? If you ever get the chance again I would politely ask the officer what the particular statute might be so you could avoid any further problems...I have been entertaining the idea of going to Florida next winter just for the opportunity to beach hunt in winter, when work for me here is slow & was thinking the East coast might be best??? I guess I need to do a little research first...HH...TT
 
they are protected because alot of sunken treasure ships from the 1715 treasure fleet amonst other treasure galleons. Mel fisher holds the lease on these wrecksites, that span from cape canveral all the way down to key west. Of course if You have a boat, diver and pay for the very pricely yearly fees to hunt the sites, then you will be legal.

Now I'm just saying that is how it is at Kennedy space center, you get away from the space center and you can hunt all up and down the beaches. . Maybe it's from the stuff thats comes off of the shuttle they don't want to public digging up, but I think it because of the endangered sea turtles nests, they don't want people digging on the beach and destroying the turtles.

krissy
 
I know in Florida the law is that you can search state park and public beaches down to the low tide line. You are not supposed to be in the water or on any protected dunes. You are NOT allowed to dive with a metal detector without a lease. The state actually gets first option to purchase any item that is pulled from the water. I don't know about Alabama but you could call the state capital and spend a few hours bugging people to find out.

Happy Hunting
 
I work for the US Army Corps of Engineers. We allow hunting on government/public land but we require a no-cost permit to do so. Each lake in the Little Rock District must be permitted. Not so sure about other districts. I quick call to the PAO at the Jacksonville District should clear a lot up for you.

Better to be safe than sorry. Now, there are certain Federal properties that have protected status of one sort or another. That's why one should seek the powers-that-be before taking that machine unto Federal land.

aj
 
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