(a) Any qualified persons, firm, or corporation desiring to conduct any type of exploration or recovery operations, in the course of which any underwater historic property or part thereof may be removed, displaced, or destroyed, shall first make application to the Department for a permit to conduct such operations.

(b) If the Department finds that the granting of such permit is in the best interest of Guam, it may grant such applicant a permit for such a period of time and under such conditions as the Department deems to be in the best interest of Guam.

(c) Such permit may provide for the fair compensation to the permittee in terms of a percentage of the reasonable cash value of

the objects recovered or a fair share of the objects recovered, such fair compensation or share to be determined by the Department.

(d) Superior title to all objects recovered shall be retained by Guam unless or until they are released to the permittee by the Department.

(e) All exploration and recovery operations undertaken pursuant to a permit issued under this section shall be carried out under the general supervision of the Department and in accordance with the rules and regulations prescribed under § 76304 and in such manner that the maximum amount of historic, scientific, archaeological, and educational information may be
recovered and preserved in addition to the physical recovery of items.

(f) Permits may be renewed upon or prior to expiration upon such terms as the Department may specify.

(g) Holders of permits shall be responsible for obtaining permission of any federal agencies having jurisdiction prior to conducting any salvaging operations.

SOURCE: GC § 13985.34 enacted by P.L. 12-126 (May 3, 1974).

2022 NOTE: References to “”territory”” replaced with “”Guam”” pursuant to
1 Guam Code Ann. § 420.

2016 NOTE: Subsection designations were added to adhere to the Compiler’s codification and alpha-numeric schemes pursuant to authority granted by 1 Guam Code Ann. § 1606.