[bluGill]

Selling on eBay is theft. The contents if those containers belongs to someone. You can possibly make a living recovering the container for the owner, but if you don't agree to a price beforehand the lawyers will make a killing in court deciding what you should get.

[bqmjjx0kac]

I would assume the legality depends on where the container fell.

[bluGill]

North Korea and a few similar countries. Otherwise all countries recognised some form of law which is things lost at sea are still owned by the person/org that lost it.

[bqmjjx0kac]

Oh, interesting, I didn't have a sense of how widespread that was.

I remember this 300-year-old Spanish shipwreck that was dredged up by a private company. The Spanish government then sued and won. They had to give back ~500k coins. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44302476

I'm not sure how I feel about the outcome. In particular it seems odd that Spain could indefinitely claim ownership, even if they have no intention of recovering the wreck. That being said, I don't strictly believe "finders keepers" applies here either.