Magnet Fishing and Mudlarking

Magnet fishing

Magnet fishing is the cheapest door into treasure hunting: a strong magnet on a rope, a bridge or a dock, and whatever iron the water has been swallowing for a hundred years. It is also growing fast, which means the rules are still catching up to it.

In the US it is legal in most places, with a few exceptions. South Carolina effectively bans it by restricting how you may recover submerged objects, Indiana and Wisconsin require a permit, Massachusetts wants special permission, and a lot of state parks ban it or want their own permit. Check the water before you throw.

What comes up is mostly scrap, that is the honest part, but the haul can include tools, coins, jewelry, bottles, bicycles, safes, and now and then a firearm, which carries its own legal duty.

Recovered firearms

It happens often enough that every magnet fisher should know the drill before it does. Pull up a firearm and the romance ends, because a found gun can be evidence in a crime, and how you handle it can put you on the wrong side of the law.

The rule is simple and firm: do not take it home. Do not clean it, do not try to unload, fire, or take it apart, and do not scrub off the mud. Any of that can destroy fingerprints, DNA, or ballistic evidence, and transporting a found firearm that may be stolen can expose you to criminal liability even with good intentions.

What to do instead: set it down somewhere safe, photograph it and the location, and call the police non-emergency line. Let officers take possession and handle it from there.

1. Do not take it home.
2. Do not clean, unload, fire, or disassemble it, and do not remove mud or debris.
3. Photograph it and record the exact location.
4. Call the police non-emergency line and let officers take possession.

Mudlarking

Mudlarking is the old London word for searching the foreshore, the strip of riverbank the tide uncovers twice a day, for the things a city has been dropping into its river for two thousand years. The Thames is the most famous mudlarking ground on earth, and on a good low tide its mud gives up clay pipes, Tudor pins, medieval tokens, and Roman coins.

It is also tightly regulated now. Since 2016 the Port of London Authority has required a permit to search the tidal Thames foreshore in any way, including eyes-only searching, scraping, digging, or detecting, and demand has been so high that new permits have become limited. You can still walk the foreshore without a permit as long as you do not search, and guided tours let beginners find and photograph surface finds legally.

Wherever you mudlark, the tide is the real danger. The Thames can rise and fall over seven metres, the current is fast, the water cold. Check the tide, tell someone, and get off the foreshore in good time.