For Aspiring Treasure Hunters!
Required Licences:
Boating
Diving
Boat:
Purchase a Motorboat. See this screenshot for detailed information about the motorboat. http://imgur.com/a/mIqsa
Equipment:
Market: Wreck Excavator $360
Clothing Store: Carryall Backpack $250
Diving Shop: Wetsuit $200, Rebreather $500, Diving Goggles $50
Boat Garage: Motorboat $450
Talents:
Excavator, Faster Gathering when excavating shipwrecks.
Where:
Go to one of the shipwreck icons on the map. See this screenshot for some examples of shipwreck icons, circled in purple. http://imgur.com/a/rJ9D3
How:
Get out of your boat, swim down about 30m, press y, select inventory, select your wreck excavator, then select use. Now don't move. At the start, you may get a message basically telling you that your action was cancelled due to movement, but don't worry it wasn't. Now you should be seeing a message in the middle of your screen saying you have collected some treasure from the wreck every couple of seconds. This process will take about 3m 15s(with the talent). When your inventory is full, you will see a message in the middle of your screen saying excavation aborted due to movement. When this happens, it's time to swim up and deposit your inventory into your boats trunk. Now, repeat until your trunk and backpack is full. Sell your oil to the commodities trader, sell your cocaine to the drug dealer, and sell everything else to the jewelry store.
Notes:
You get a lot of lockpicks and zipties as you excavate. It's worth dropping them once you get back to your boat in order to make room for more valuable loot. You can not excavate with a SVD. Unless you don't plan on dropping any of the lockpicks or zipties you gather. A tip passed on to me was to bring along a change of clothes. Robbers tend to target excavators wearing wetsuits. If you feel you need a bit more protection, consider picking up an SDAR. Just beware of its shortcomings. http://armedassault.wikia.com/wiki/SDAR
Closing:
Everyone will want to know how much money you get and how long this process takes. There are many variables involved in trying to calculate how long a single run may take, so I won't comment on that. I will say that a given run could give you $30,000+. This is really determined by the current prices of cocaine, oil, and how many flawless diamonds you get, and how strict you are about throwing out lockpicks and zipties.