South Carolina

South Carolina's Underwater Antiquities Act (S.C. Code 54-7-610 and following) makes fossils and artefacts in state waters — the coastal waters to three miles offshore and all navigable and formerly navigable rivers, creeks and canals below the mean low-water mark — state property, and issues a Hobby Licence for recreational recovery. The licence is administered by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) and covers the Cooper, Edisto, Wando and Ashley river dives that produce Oligocene–Pleistocene shark teeth, whale and mammal material.

Licence conditions: hand collection only of naturally exposed material resting on the bottom — no digging, dredging, sieving with mechanical equipment or disturbing embedded material; quarterly reports listing what was found and where, filed within ten days of each quarter's end even if nothing was found (artefacts reported to SCIAA, fossils to the South Carolina State Museum); and the licence covers nothing above the waterline. The State may claim significant finds. Licences are explicitly recreational; selling licence-collected material can cost you the licence, and commercial recovery needs a separate exclusive licence.

On land the general rule applies — landowner permission — and the Summerville, Ridgeville and Harleyville quarry and construction sites that produce Oligocene shark and whale material are private and mostly closed. South Carolina State Parks prohibit collecting; Congaree is a national park.

Verify locally: the current licence fee and duration (historically a small fee for six months or two years) on SCIAA's page, and whether wading and snorkelling in shallow rivers now counts as the licensed activity — SCIAA's FAQ is the authority.