• Removing artifacts from archaeological sites results in the loss of valuable evidence that could lead to new knowledge of the past and destroys cultural and touristic resources that belong to all. Such vandalism ruins the sites for everyone – recreational divers, dive  clubs, and the general public. Where will you go when the wreck sites are destroyed, where will you take your divers? What knowledge and understanding of our history, and our heritage will be lost to us and future generations?
• By bringing an artifact up to the surface, you are compromising its integrity. Many artifacts that have been underwater for a prolonged period of time have lost a significant portion of their internal supporting matrix. When they dry out, they shrink and distort. Their compromised internal structure is not be able to support its own weight and, whether within minutes or after a few years, the artifact disintegrates.  Furthermore, all artifacts retrieved from the sea have absorbed salts and chlorides. Without proper conservation, these with crystallize and expand once the object has dried out, breaking the artifact apart from within. Hence, not only is the site destroyed, but ultimately so also is the artifact.
• Everything on a wreck site reaches a balance with its environment. Once this balance is disturbed – when something is moved or taken – other artifacts are brought out of balance and their degradation is expedited as well.
• Archaeologists only have one attempt at excavating a wreck properly – once something is moved or taken, its context is destroyed, both for the artifact that is removed and for the artifacts that are left behind. A piece of the puzzle is removed and, as a result, a theory may not be provable, or plausible or even ever come to mind.
• Not all artifacts are diagnostic, however, many are one-of-a-kind – an untrained person cannot tell which the important ones may be, even if they could, concretions may cover diagnostic features. Even archaeologists often take years before fully undertanding the importance of paticular arttifacts.
• The shipwreck at Tektas Burnu carried 213 amphorae. “Why not take one? Do archaeologists need them all?” Consider this – of the 213 amphorae, only one carried a stamp with an “Epsilon” on it. This lead to the identification of the vessel as Erythraen and established a new series of amphorae assigned to Erythrae. Aslan Burnu carrιed only two pieces of black figure pottery that identified and dated the wreck as classical Greek. The Uluburun shipwreck contained a single scarab of Nefertiti –the only one ever found, since in Egypt after her reign, images of the queen were subsequently destroyed.
• "There is no wreck here, only a few ceramic vessels" - The Sheytan Deresi shipwreck was identified by only two jars protruding from the sea-floor. Without them, archaeologists would never have been led to the shipwreck site, which may prove to be one of the oldest ever discovered.
• "The site was so disturbed, it does not matter if one more artifact is removed' The site of the 4th-century shipwreck at Yassiada was heavily disturbed when archaeological excavation got underway, and only scraps of its hull remained. In the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, you can now visit the full-scale vessel reconstruction archaeologists were able to deduce from information retrieved from the site. One can only imagine how much more we could have learned had the site not been disturbed.
• "Can significant information really be recovered from a single ceramic jar, a coin, or even a seashell?” Did you know that scientists can date a wreck from a spore of pollen on the interior of an amphora; can provenience a wreck from sea-shells recovered from the site; can identify the contents of amphoras that have been underwater for thousands of years; can trace the metal of an object to the very mine it came from? Science has advanced to amazing levels and will continue to do so in the future. This means that in the future we may develop new ways of gathering information that we cannot even imagine today: artifacts have to be able to be examined and re-examined, analyzed and re-analyzed.
• "Even if objects are reported to the authorities, nothing happens and the artifacts are not retrieved”. It is not always in the best interest of an artifact to be recovered. This has been determined by the international community through the International Convention for the Preservation of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. Once an artifact reaches a balance with its environment, its speed of degradation is significantly decreased and hence, left untouched, it will continue to be preserved underwater. Archaeologists only remove artifacts from the sea-floor if the necessary researchers, funds, equipment, supplies, and expertise are available in order to properly conserve, research, display and store the artifacts. At the same time, however, a site may be studied, mapped, and interpreted in order to contribute to our knowledge, without necessarily moving or removing any of the artifacts. The Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of Greece maintains a database of approximately 1,000 reported sites, of which 300 have already been recorded.
• Most artifacts are rarely valuable on the illegal antiquities market, but their historical value may be inestimable. A basic premise of archaeology is to share that historical knowledge that is recovered for artifacts and inspire the general public about their past
• An individual has no right to remove anything from a site, as it does not belong to him or her. Our underwater cultural heritage belongs to everyone – it should be protected for all people, for Greece, for the sake of our heritage. It forms part fo where you came from, who you are, your identity and your pride.
• Disturbing an underwater archaeological site, and/or removing artifacts is highly illegal and punishable with steep fines and up to 10 years in prison (see Section Nine of Law on the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage).