Scuba diver inadvertently disturbs human remains while searching for 'river treasure'

A scuba diving US treasure hunter's squeals could be heard underwater when he discovered a box containing a bag of cremated human remains and the deceased person's name during a recent dive.

YouTube personality Jake Koehler was scuba diving with friends in Georgia when he stumbled across the small black plastic box last month.

He was diving for "river treasure" but instead came across a plastic bag filled with a deceased person's cremated remains.

At first he didn't realise what it was. But when some of the ashes started spilling out of the bag, Mr Koehler's screams could be heard on his forehead-mounted GoPro camera.

The scuba diver re-packed the plastic bag into the box and took it up to the surface with him.

"I stumbled upon something that I'm not too sure what to do," he said. "I want to be respectful and I want to make sure we do this the right way. So we're actually about to call the police in a second."

The dilemma for Mr Koehler and his friends was whether to sprinkle the remains back in the water, so future divers would not get the same shock, or return the black box as it was.

"I think usually most people would just sprinkle the remains into the water but this was like everything in one box just chucked out there," Mr Koehler said.

"We really wanted to do this in the most respectful way."

Police advised the YouTube personality to return the remains into the water exactly as he found them.

Mr Koehler claims the police officers remembered him from a previous incident in which he found a gun while scuba diving and reported it to them.