"Today's the day!" was the motto of the late treasure hunter Mel Fisher. After many years of fruitless searching off the Florida keys, Mel Fisher and his crew found part of the Atocha, a Spanish treasure galleon wrecked off the Florida coast, in a hurricane, in September of 1622.
Beginning is 1969, Mel and his crew searched for the Atocha and her sister ships. For 16 years, Mel and his crew went out day after day, weather permitting, and searched for the Atocha, and her sister ship, the Margarita. He paid dearly, losing his son, daughter-in-law, and another diver, in an accident.
Despite the tragedy, Mel and crew kept on searching, with Mel's motto, "Today's the day!" guiding them to keep going. In 1985 they found the front section of the Atocha, a pile of over over $450 million worth silver, gold, and emeralds. In the many years since, they have kept searching for the stern castle of the Atocha, and the Margarita, and they have been recovering more gold, silver, and emeralds, year after year.
Yes, this is not a small business, and not a side gig. But if you have some money to invest, a limited number of people are able to invest in the continuing work to find more treasure from the Atocha, Margarita, and other wrecks they are searching for. If you have the skills, you can even dive the site with their team, or if you're not a diver, you can go out on their recovery boats and help sift through the sand brought up to find some of the legendary Muso emeralds that were aboard the ships. There are still hundreds of millions of dollars of treasure unaccounted for from the 1622 fleet's shipwrecks, and many other galleons lost in that era. If you invest in the Mel Fisher crew's work for a year, there is a party at the end of the year when they distribute the treasure found over the year, and investors get actual treasure in payment for their investment. I don't know of any other deal like that in the world.
Mel Fisher passed away in 1998, but his son Kim, and the rest of their crew, keep searching the wreck sites for treasure, off the Florida keys. The Mel Fisher Museum in Key West, Florida is a place where you can learn more about the Spanish galleons, and see some of the actual treasure from the Atocha and the Margarita.
If you are interested in investing in the the continuing recovery of the Atocha, the Margarita, and other wrecks they searching for, there's information on the Mel Fisher Treasures website.
Here are some more videos about Mel Fisher and the Atocha story:
1986 National Geographic video- Atocha: Quest for Treasure (57:26)
