ABSTRACT
Some speculate that the density of historic shipwrecks in the extensive Indonesian archipelago is likely to be numbered among the highest of all the seaboard countries with long histories of maritime trade. Scholars became aware of Indonesia's submerged cultural material in the 1980s and approached it from three different angles. Apart from government authorities, other powerful stakeholders have declared their interest, ranging from local and regional communities to internationally operating salvage companies. Following the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Indonesia has special rights in the zone of 200 nautical miles from the baseline of the sea, including the Exclusive Economic Zone. Hatcher's Australian company claimed that the operation was conducted under official licence in cooperation with the Indonesian company PT Pratama Cakrawala Dirga. Salvage laws and concepts of historical objects in Indonesia are being redefined in the context of separate legislation enacted for historical wrecks.
