Diving the wrecks and GPS information
All of the GPS marks on the page have been verified and are accurate, if any discrepancies are found please contact us and we'll happily assist, recheck and investigate in any way we can.
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There are a few things that are important and to bare in mind when using the marks off this page with regards to the Historic Shipwrecks Act, vessel safety and the weather conditions.
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Firstly, all of our marks are recorded under the Datum of WGS84. WGS84 is matched very closely to GDA94
however using a GPS unit set to a different datum to WGS84 will give an inaccuracy and can have your boat well off the mark. Secondly, the format for our co-ordinates is in Degrees° Minutes. Decimal Minutes' (DDD°MM.mmm') trying to enter the coordinates given into a different format without the use of a conversion calculator will give a very inaccurate position. If unsure, check the settings on the GPS unit you are using.
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All of our marks posted on this site have been verified and collected by ourselves personally, the usual way is by first locating the wreck by swim search and deploying a DSMB over the site. The position of the DSMB is then recorded on the GPS upon retreival with the boat. Alternatively, if the wreck is a substantial wreck it is located by echosounder trace and the position marked while directly over the target.
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We take pride in having accurate positions to share online, this has been the driving force behind this website and our Facebook page however, having co-ordinates directly over wreck sites presents its own set of problems both legally and with regards to safety.
Under the Historical Shipwrecks Act it is against the law to disturb, damage or remove anything from a wreck site - this includes deliberately dropping your anchor on a wreck site.
Also, being that most wrecks that came to a disastrous end generally wreck in shallow water and amongst breaking waves, many GPS marks are unsafe in all but the best conditions. We take no responsibility for any action that happens while using our marks, it is paramount that the skipper is always responsible for their own vessel and drops anchor with due diligence with regards to vessel safety, prevailing conditions and legal responsibilities. Whenever approaching a wreck site or GPS position hang back and watch what is happening. The best course of action if going ahead with a dive is to drop a marker buoy on the GPS position and move your vessel away to a distance deemed safe and dive from the vessel towards the marker. GPS positions mark the location of a shipwreck and not necessarily a safe anchorage.
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We also hold no responsibilty for any GPS mark shared through this page from an external source, as stated above, we first started our pages to share accurate GPS marks with the diving community after many years of frustration with wasted time, money and resources from diving marks shared from dive shops, nautical charts and various online sources with no confirmation of accuracy, that in some cases are more than 500 metres from the actual wreck sites.
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I don't dive and search for silver or treasure, accurate GPS positions are my treasure, the thrill of the search is what drives us and a GPS full of accurate dive sites is our reward. We hope to share that to promote our local, world class diving on our doorstep.
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Happy diving and stay safe.
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Cheers,
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Dave