The sand and the water are different places
Stand on a Florida beach and you are usually on sand the public may walk. Step into the water and you are over bottom that the state treats as public land. The Florida Department of State says state-owned underwater resources are the bottoms of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, and bays, and offshore water: in the Gulf of Mexico out to 9 miles, and in the Atlantic out to 3 miles.
On dry sand and on the wet sand above the water, metal detecting is a local question. The Division of Historical Resources says metal detecting on state land is generally prohibited, with few exceptions, and that many public beaches allow metal detecting between the high tide line and the toe of the dune. Beaches inside state parks, federal parks, preserves, sanctuaries, and military installations have their own rules. The division says to consult the park or property manager.
In the water, visiting a shipwreck is allowed. Taking objects off it is a different act. The same division tells divers that no shipwreck under state jurisdiction is off-limits to divers, and that disturbance or removal without written authorization from the Division of Historical Resources is prohibited. Its short line for divers is to take only photographs and leave only bubbles.
A plain split. A modern coin or a ring lost last month can be a beach find, and you still ask the manager of that beach what to do with it. A coin, spike, or timber from an old wreck, on state land or on state bottom, is an archaeological object. The public pages below tell you to leave it, photograph it, and call the state.
The rule follows the beach you are standing on
Florida has no single metal-detector pass that covers every shoreline. Read the row for the beach in front of you, then call the office that manages it before you unpack a coil.
| Place |
Detector |
What the official page says about finds |
| Florida State Park inland shore, or a park whose beach is a lake, river, or spring |
The State Parks FAQ says these are not coastal parks, so metal detecting is not allowed. |
Park property, soil, sand, and artifacts stay in the park. The parks FAQ quotes that rule from Chapter 62D, Florida Administrative Code. |
| Florida State Park coastal beach |
Allowed only in certain beach areas between the toe of the dune and the high-water line, in the stretch the park manager designates. Submerged detecting is not permitted. |
Anything over 50 years old may not be kept by a park visitor, even in an approved area. The parks FAQ calls those objects archaeological artifacts and says title is vested in the Division of Historical Resources. |
| Many other public beaches |
The Division of Historical Resources says many allow detecting between the high tide line and the toe of the dune. The city or county can add its own rule. |
Historic material and wreck material on state-owned land, including state sovereignty submerged land, have a separate protection under Florida law. |
| National Park System beach, seashore, or fort |
Federal rule 36 CFR 2.1(a)(7) prohibits possessing or using a metal detector, magnetometer, side scan sonar, other metal detecting device, or subbottom profiler. |
The same section prohibits digging or removing cultural or archeological resources. A detector broken down and stored or packed to prevent its use is an exception written in the rule. |
| In the water, over state-owned bottom |
State park waters are closed to metal detecting. On other state bottom, removing artifacts is prohibited. A written permit is the path the state describes for survey and recovery. |
Divers may visit wrecks under state jurisdiction. They may not disturb them or remove objects without written authorization. |
The high-water line in the State Parks FAQ and the high tide line in the Division of Historical Resources FAQ are the words those two offices use. Call the manager of the beach and use that office’s line in the sand.
Florida State Parks
Florida State Parks publishes the metal-detecting answer as FAQ 1.6. The parks say their statewide rule, based on the Florida Administrative Code, prohibits metal detecting on all state park lands except coastal parks. In those coastal parks, detecting may occur within certain beach areas between the toe of the dune and the high-water line, as designated by the park manager. Metal detecting in submerged locations is not permitted.
The same answer covers old objects. Objects with historic association, which the parks describe as anything over 50 years old, are not permitted to be kept by park visitors, even in an area approved for detecting. The parks call these archaeological artifacts and say title is vested in the Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources. That 50-year line is the State Parks FAQ. This page uses it for state park beaches.
The parks ask visitors to call ahead and ask whether any section of that beach is open to detecting, and whether you may dig to recover an object. A park listed as having a beach can still be an inland park whose shore is a lake, a river, or a spring. The FAQ says those are not coastal parks, so metal detecting is not allowed there.
A ring you lost yourself
FAQ 1.7 is the lost-and-found rule. A metal detector may be used to recover a personal item the owner identifies as lost in a specific area of a park. The owner, or the owner’s representative, contacts the park manager. The manager arranges a time. The search happens in the presence of a park staff member. During that search, only the item sought may be kept.
Sand, shells, and artifacts
FAQ 1.8 quotes Chapter 62D, Florida Administrative Code: no person shall destroy, injure, deface, mar, move, dig, harmfully disturb, or remove from any park area, or the waters thereof, any buildings, structures, facilities, historic ruins, equipment, park property, soil, sand, gravel, rocks, stones, minerals, marine plants or animals, artifacts, or other materials. The parks also say no person shall cut, carve, injure, mutilate, move, displace, or break off any water-bottom formation or growth.
The parks read that rule to cover firewood, edible plants, driftwood, leaves, feathers, bones, and other animal products. They describe two exceptions. One is a collection permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for research or academic study. The other is empty seashells, sea glass, or shark teeth found between the water line and the toe of the sand dunes in coastal parks with beaches. Seashells with living animals, and live sand dollars, stay where they are.
The parks FAQ is the place that states where a detector may be used. It says that rule is based on the Florida Administrative Code. The dig-and-remove words above are the words the parks quote from Chapter 62D.
Florida State Parks FAQ floridastateparks.org
State parks with beaches floridastateparks.org
City beaches, county beaches, and private sand
The Division of Historical Resources answers the state-land question this way: metal detecting on state land is generally prohibited, with few exceptions. Many public beaches allow metal detecting between the high tide line and the toe of the dune. Beaches that are part of state and federal parks, preserves, sanctuaries, and military installations have specific rules. The division says to consult the manager.
A city beach or a county beach can add hours, a permit, a hole-depth limit, or a closed zone. Those local rules live with that city or county. Call the beach office named on the sign at the walkover and ask about that exact stretch. A private beach, or private upland behind the public sand, needs the owner’s permission.
Military installations publish their own access rules. Ask the installation before you carry a detector onto that beach.
Underwater archaeology FAQ, Division of Historical Resources dos.fl.gov
National Park Service beaches and forts
National Park System land follows a federal rule, including beaches and forts the National Park Service manages in Florida. Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 2.1(a)(7), prohibits possessing or using a mineral or metal detector, magnetometer, side scan sonar, other metal detecting device, or subbottom profiler.
The same paragraph lists what it does not apply to: a device broken down and stored or packed to prevent its use while in park areas; electronic equipment used primarily for the navigation and safe operation of boats and aircraft; and mineral or metal detectors, magnetometers, or subbottom profilers used for authorized scientific, mining, or administrative activities.
Section 2.1(a) also prohibits possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or disturbing cultural or archeological resources, and the same acts against living or dead wildlife, plants, and paleontological specimens, except as the chapter otherwise provides.
National Park System areas in Florida include Everglades National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park, Canaveral National Seashore, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, and Fort Matanzas National Monument. The federal section above is the rule for those areas. Read the park’s own page before a visit, because a seashore can add closures for nesting, safety, or restoration.
36 CFR 2.1 law.cornell.edu
Everglades National Park nps.gov
Dry Tortugas National Park nps.gov
Canaveral National Seashore nps.gov
Gulf Islands National Seashore nps.gov
Castillo de San Marcos nps.gov
Fort Matanzas nps.gov
If you find an old coin or wreck material
The Bureau of Archaeological Research tells the public what to do with an underwater site, a cannon, or an anchor. The same habits fit an old coin or a piece of wreckage on the beach when you can see that it belongs to a ship or to another historic site.
- Stop. Leave the object in place. Do not dig out a wreck, a ballast pile, or a buried archaeological site.
- Photograph it where it lies. Include the surrounding sand or bottom so the location is clear.
- On a Florida State Park beach, an object over 50 years old is not yours to keep, even in a zone where detecting is allowed. Tell the park staff.
- On state-owned land, including state bottom, report the find to the Bureau of Archaeological Research. The office can tell you whether the site is already recorded.
- A ring or keys lost recently are a different kind of find. On a state park beach, the lost-item search in FAQ 1.7 is arranged with the park manager and done with staff present. On a city or county beach, hand a recent valuable to that beach office and ask how it handles lost property.
Report a site
Bureau of Archaeological Research
Division of Historical Resources
B. Calvin Jones Center for Archaeology
1001 de Soto Park Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32301
850-245-6444
The division says there is no Treasure Hunting Permit. Some companies have received Exploration and Recovery Permits under Chapter 1A-31, Florida Administrative Code, after they meet the archaeological requirements. Scientific and educational work uses a different permit. Under an Archaeological Research Permit, the division says the collected material remains public property. Under an Exploration and Recovery Permit, the division says a portion of the conserved material may be awarded to the permittee after analysis, and the state retains the rest.
Florida law, as the division describes it, prohibits excavation or removal of artifacts and encourages a person who notices a cannon or an anchor to photograph it and make contact. Historic cannon and anchors are often already documented and left in place, or replaced with replicas, so the site and the dive remain.
Chapter 1A-31, Florida Administrative Code flrules.org
What the statute says about penalties
Section 267.13, Florida Statutes (2026), is the prohibited-practices section. The Online Sunshine copy read for this page is dated November 4, 2026. The penalties below are the ones that section writes. It points criminal punishment to sections 775.082, 775.083, and, for the felony subsections, 775.084. Those sections set the jail, prison, and fine ranges. This page leaves the ranges in those sections.
Without excavation
Section 267.13(1)(a) covers a person who, by means other than excavation, conducts archaeological field investigations on, or removes or attempts to remove, or defaces, destroys, or otherwise alters, an archaeological site or specimen on land owned or controlled by the state, land owned by a water authority, or land inside a designated state archaeological landmark or landmark zone, without a permit or the division’s procedures for accredited institutions. That offense is a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in section 775.082 or section 775.083. Specimens, objects, and materials collected, together with photographs and records relating to them, are forfeited to the state.
By excavation
Section 267.13(1)(b) covers the same conduct when it is done by excavation. That offense is a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in section 775.082, section 775.083, or section 775.084. A vehicle or equipment used in the violation is subject to forfeiture if a court finds that it was involved. Collected or excavated material, photographs, and records are forfeited. The court may order restitution to the state for archaeological or commercial value and for the cost of restoration and repair, as that section defines those terms.
Selling or sending someone else to do it
Section 267.13(1)(c) covers a person who offers an object for sale or exchange knowing it was collected or excavated in violation of sections 267.11 through 267.14, or who procures, counsels, solicits, or employs another person to violate those prohibitions, or to sell, purchase, exchange, transport, receive, or offer such an archaeological resource taken from the protected land, except with the express consent of the division. That offense is a felony of the third degree, with the same style of vehicle forfeiture, object forfeiture, and possible restitution.
The daily administrative fine
Section 267.13(2)(a) says the division may impose an administrative fine of not more than $500 a day on a person or business that, without written permission, explores for, salvages, or excavates treasure trove, artifacts, sunken or abandoned ships, or other objects of historical or archaeological value on land owned or controlled by the state, including state sovereignty submerged land, or on land owned by a water authority.
The division’s underwater laws page states the same idea in shorter words: intentional excavation of underwater sites without written authorization is a third-degree felony. Its public-lands answer on river collecting says removal of artifacts from state lands, including submerged river bottoms, is prohibited by section 267.13 and is punishable as a first-degree misdemeanor or a third-degree felony depending on the circumstances.
A longer Florida laws reading lives on this site: Florida laws.
Section 267.13, Florida Statutes Online Sunshine
Underwater laws, Division of Historical Resources dos.fl.gov
Finding a shipwreck, and leaving it there
Florida’s coast has wrecks from several centuries. The Division of Historical Resources describes dugout canoes, colonial warships and merchant ships, ships that carried brick, lumber, and fish, and modern ships sunk on purpose as artificial reefs. The division’s line about their value is that the treasure of a shipwreck is its chance to reconstruct the past. A wreck is a time capsule of the people who designed it, built it, loaded it, and sailed it. Cultural resources, the division says, do not grow back once they are damaged.
Divers are encouraged to visit. The laws page says no shipwreck under state jurisdiction is off-limits to divers. The protection is against disturbance and removal without written authorization. Report what you see. Ask before any further investigation.
On April 28, 1988, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act became law. The division cites it as 43 U.S.C. 2101. The division says the act gives title to certain abandoned shipwrecks in state waters to the states, and that this gives title to those shipwrecks in Florida waters to the people of Florida. The Bureau of Archaeological Research manages them: study, public access, and protection from wanton destruction.
The same laws page describes the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 1990, covering 2,800 nautical square miles, including the continental United States’ only coral reef and numerous shipwrecks. Cultural-resource work there, the division says, includes an ongoing inventory of shipwrecks in partnership with the Florida Department of State.
Two permits are the paths the division describes for people who want to do more than look. An Archaeological Research Permit is for museums, universities, and colleges with professional archaeological staff. Material collected under it remains public property and may be loaned for study, curation, or display. An Exploration and Recovery Permit may be granted to individuals or companies for survey and recovery of submerged cultural resources offshore in state waters. The division says these are permits for supervised work, and they are not leases of state land. After an extensive survey, excavation may be permitted under archaeological guidelines. Recovered artifacts must be recorded and conserved. At the end, a portion may be awarded to the permittee, and the state retains the remainder for research and public display.
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 is the federal law the division summarizes for archaeological resources on public lands. The division says it provides for fines, imprisonment, and confiscation of artifacts, tools, and vehicles, and that it does not apply to state lands. Florida’s own chapter 267 is the state framework the division points to for state property on land and in the water.
The hurricane, the camp, and the gold
The story Florida State Parks tells at Sebastian Inlet begins with a flagship. Capitan-General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla sailed in the Capitana. The parks’ history page says that ship guarded an impressive cargo of more than 3.5 million pesos in treasure. The fleet was en route from Havana to Spain. A hurricane sank it. Many sailors died.
The people who lived through it did not all leave at once. Survivors and salvagers gathered in a camp near the inlet. The parks describe it as a hardscrabble camp, set up so the survivors could recapture as much gold, silver, and jewels as they could from the sea. Pirates harassed them. The conditions were hard. When the camp’s inhabitants finally left, they left artifacts and clues. The location of that camp is now the McLarty Treasure Museum. The museum interprets the aftermath of the wreck and the area’s older history.
The parks’ own welcome to the inlet says the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet wrecked in shallow water off the island, and that the disaster still captures the imagination. The experiences page places the museum on a survivors’ camp of the wrecked 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet. Inside are artifacts and displays. An observation deck looks over the ocean. A film titled “The Queen’s Jewels and the 1715 Fleet” tells how the fleet was returning to Spain when a hurricane struck off the Florida coast. The parks page says salvagers still work to recover gold, silver, and the queen’s jewels that were lost to the sea and the sandy shores. The museum’s heading on that page is the local name for this stretch of coast: experience why this area has come to be known as the Treasure Coast.
The shoreline was already a home. The parks’ history says that long before 1715, people lived in coastal villages and lived off the sea. Archaeological research has uncovered successive Indian civilizations along Florida’s east coast. The parks say evidence suggests people have inhabited the area since 2000 B.C. Pottery remains in the area bear markings and materials similar to the Glades culture to the south and the St. Johns culture to the north. The history page closes by asking a visitor to look at the coast and imagine Spanish treasure ships on the horizon, or columns of smoke from the campfires of the Ais.
This page stays with those official sentences. It gives the cargo figure the parks give for the Capitana, more than 3.5 million pesos. It gives the gold, silver, and jewels the parks name, including the queen’s jewels in the film description. It does not add a price for a single modern coin find, because that price is not on these official pages.
History and culture of Sebastian Inlet floridastateparks.org
Seeing it at Sebastian Inlet
Sebastian Inlet State Park sits on the barrier island at 9700 South Highway A1A, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951. The park phone listed on the park page is 321-984-4852. The park page read on November 4, 2026, lists the park as open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a vehicle fee of $8. The same page says to see all fees. Fees can change.
The park page also posted visitor notices. Effective October 25, 2026, the north jetty is temporarily closed. Effective May 2026, construction is scheduled on the Sebastian Inlet bridge along Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway, which is the access to the park. The park says visitors may meet extra traffic, construction noise, and possible changes to the campground entrance, and that camping reservations may be canceled. Access to the beach from the south side is unavailable because of that construction. On weekends and during peak periods, the north side may reach capacity and close to incoming visitors. Read the park page the day you go.
Two museums sit in the park. The McLarty Treasure Museum highlights the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet. The Sebastian Fishing Museum covers the area’s fishing industry and the Indian River Lagoon. The experiences page read on November 4, 2026, gives these hours and fees, which can change:
- McLarty Treasure Museum: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Entry fee $2 a person. The final showing of the film that day begins at 3:15 p.m.
- Sebastian Fishing Museum: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week, except major holidays. The parks page says there is no additional fee for the fishing museum beyond the normal park entry fee.
The $2 figure above is the state park’s museum entry fee on that page. It is a park admission charge for the treasure museum.
The park also asks visitors to watch sea turtle nests. Its sea-turtle note says the loggerhead is the most abundant sea turtle at the park, with nearly 700 nests in 2018, and that the park conducts ranger-guided educational sea turtle walks. That nest count is the park’s figure for 2018.
A surf report for Florida beaches on this site: Florida surf. A place to stay after a day at the inlet starts on Florida hotels. Each hotel has its own page.
Sebastian Inlet State Park floridastateparks.org
Experiences, museum hours, and the $2 museum fee floridastateparks.org
Fifty-one pieces of fleet silver, given to the state in 2026
On March 17, 2026, the Florida Department of State announced that the Division of Historical Resources had received a donation of fifty-one silver objects from the 1715 Fleet Society. Secretary of State Cord Byrd thanked Richard Beleson and the 1715 Fleet Society. The release says the items were added to the state’s public collections for exhibit, loan, and research.
The objects were discovered in 2021 by Captain Michael Perna and the crew of the Mighty Mo. They were recovered from the Anchor Wreck, a shipwreck from the Spanish Plate Fleet lost in a hurricane that hit Florida’s east coast in 1715. The release says that along the coastline of what is now Indian River and St. Lucie counties, eleven ships sank, carrying cargo from Spain’s American colonies bound for Europe.
The donated artifacts are described as a cache or chest of silver, likely part of a single object that was meant to be reassembled on arrival in Spain. Among them are two plaques bearing a horseman, similar to depictions used during Spain’s Reconquista in the 15th century. The release calls those two plaques never-before-seen.
The Bureau of Archaeological Research manages the state’s archaeological collections. After conservation, the items are to be available for loan to qualifying institutions through the Artifact Loan Program. The release says a portion of the silver cache, including the horseman plaques, will be exhibited in the Museum of Florida History when that museum reopens to the public.
That 2026 gift is a useful picture of how fleet material is supposed to move. A permitted recovery, a donation into the public collection, conservation, and then a museum. A coin picked up and carried home from state bottom skips every one of those steps, and section 267.13 is the statute that covers removal.
Department of State release, March 17, 2026 dos.fl.gov
Museum of Florida History dos.fl.gov
A careful day on the sand
Florida State Parks’ Clean Beaches Week page is written for every beach visitor, including someone with a scoop. The parks say dunes buffer storms and hold plants whose roots keep the sand in place, from sea oats to beach mice. The parks page says it is illegal to walk on the dunes in Florida, because footsteps break the sand loose and trample the plants. Use the marked path through the dunes. If you see trouble on a dune, tell a ranger.
The same page says holes in the sand can block a sea turtle from a nesting site. Fill every hole before you leave, including a plug cut for a coin. Give a sea turtle or a shorebird room. The parks tell visitors who see a turtle or a nesting bird to keep their distance.
Put the official detecting rules next to those beach habits:
- Name the beach and the agency before you go. State park, city, county, federal seashore, and military beach are four different phone calls.
- In a coastal state park, ask which stretch between the toe of the dune and the high-water line the manager has designated, and whether you may dig.
- Keep the detector out of the water in a state park. The FAQ says submerged detecting is not permitted.
- Leave anything over 50 years old with the park. That line is the State Parks FAQ for park visitors.
- On state bottom, photograph a wreck and call 850-245-6444. Leave the object where it is.
- Fill the hole. Stay on the marked path. Stay clear of marked turtle nests.
Clean Beaches Week, Florida State Parks floridastateparks.org
Sources checked November 4, 2026
Each official page opens in a new window. This Is Florida stays open.
Florida State Parks, Frequently Asked Questions, including 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8
Florida State Parks, History and Culture of Sebastian Inlet
Sebastian Inlet State Park
Sebastian Inlet experiences, museums, hours, and fees
Florida State Parks, Clean Beaches Week
Division of Historical Resources, underwater archaeology FAQ
Division of Historical Resources, underwater laws
Section 267.13, 2026 Florida Statutes, Online Sunshine
36 CFR 2.1, Legal Information Institute
Florida Department of State, March 17, 2026, 1715 Fleet silver donation
Museum of Florida History
The 1715 narrative on this page comes from Florida State Parks and from the Florida Department of State release. The Museum of Florida History is the state museum named in that release for a future exhibit of the silver. Hours and the $8 vehicle fee and the $2 museum fee were copied from the park pages on November 4, 2026, and can change.