> "Is there any obligation to turn over treasure you find yourself?"
There is, in some places.
For example, the UK Treasure Act:
"Under the Act, treasure is owned by the Crown"
"The act requires finders of treasure—specifically, gold/silver objects >300 years old, coin hoards, or significant metallic items >200 years old—to report them to a local coroner within 14 days"
The UK Merchant Shipping Act (applies to recovery from wrecks):
"all wreck material recovered in UK territorial waters or brought into the UK must be reported to the Receiver of Wreck within 28 days."
The USA Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, grants states title to wrecks in their waters.
There's also the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which applies to international waters.
"All objects of archaeological and historical nature in [international waters] must be preserved or disposed of for the benefit of mankind, with particular regard to the country of origin, cultural origin, or historical/archaeological origin."
Their point is that quoting chatgpt is a bad comment.
What's your point? It would be just as bad for someone to google a question and copy the first result snippet verbatim. So you've successfully brought up another bad way to comment.
I'm a scuba-diver and qualified marine archaelogist with a long-standing interest in archaeology and history.
I used Google to find suitable lay-descriptions/citations for the topics I already knew about (UK law on treasure and maritime law on salvage), and to understand more about applicable laws in the USA.
If you don't believe what otherwise sounds reasonable take, I don't know what to tell you. I mentioned it as a good starting point if s/he so cares to read further.
