T

he ocean about 40 miles away from Key West, Florida, was the site of a valuable discovery in June 2007. Salvagers discovered thousands of pearls in a small box while searching the wreckage of a 17^th-century Spanish galleon. The pearls, now estimated to be worth millions of dollars because of their antiquity, were buried beneath the ocean floor in 18 feet of water. Ordinarily, the pearls would have been of little value and probably not have survived at all because ocean water is not protective enough for pearls once they are out of the oysters that make them.

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