(File photo) Swedish Coast guard apprehended divers in the process of plundering protected shipwrecks.

Four divers charged with systematic plunder of protected wrecks in the Baltic

The Swedish Coast Guard apprehended the divers in July 2020, as they were found retrieving artifacts from a wreck off the Baltic island of Öland. A subsequent house search uncovered a large number of objects, which were suspected to originate from wrecks classified as protected. Among the objects was an iron cannon dated to the 17th century.

The indictment includes ten charges for incidents during a number of dives that took place from 2013 to 2020. Two of the men stand charged on all counts. 

Synoicum adareanum pictured with a starfish in 80 feet of water near Bonaparte Point, Antarctica.
Synoicum adareanum pictured with a starfish in 80 feet of water near Bonaparte Point, Antarctica.

Possible cancer drug discovered in a sea squirt

A naturally produced melanoma-fighting compound called "Palmerolide A" has been found in a microbe that lives in Synoicum adareanum, a species of ascidian common to the waters of Antarctica's Anvers Island archipelago, where it grows in small colonies.

Ascidians, or "sea squirts," are primitive, sac-like marine animals that live attached to ocean bottoms around the world, and feed on plankton by filtering seawater.