Overview

• Recent underwater imaging and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) explorations have definitively identified the San José galleon resting 600 meters off Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
• The site was first located by the Colombian Navy in 2015, and its identity as the San José was confirmed this week through high-resolution imaging of coins and cannon fragments.
• Spain, Peru and the Indigenous Qhara Qhara Nation, along with U.S. salvage firm Sea Search Armada, are asserting competing ownership claims to the vessel’s estimated $17–30 billion treasure.
• Sea Search Armada is pursuing a finder’s fee in arbitration at The Hague, arguing that it first disclosed the wreck’s location in the 1980s.
• Legal experts warn that without an international tribunal with compulsory jurisdiction, resolving the dispute will be highly complex and potentially prolonged.