"There's nothing like finding a gold coin"

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is set to turn all PlayStation 3 owners into action-hero treasure hunters – but how does the adventurous life of hero Nathan Drake measure up to that of his real-life equivalent?

We tracked down Sean Fisher to his base in Key West, Florida. A genuine, third-generation treasure hunter, Sean is grandson to the late Mel Fisher, the underwater exploration pioneer who located the shipwreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. The Atocha is a Spanish galleon that sank in 1622 with a cargo of gold, silver and jewels worth hundreds of millions of dollars today. Mel's family company, Mel Fisher Treasures, has to date recovered a vast amount of gold from the depths around the wreck - but there's more down there and the family continues to hunt for treasure in the area to this day...

How does it feel to find a new piece of treasure on the sea bed?
There's nothing like finding a gold coin – gold doesn't corrode like silver and it looks as pretty as the day it sank. I can't explain it – it's the prettiest thing you've ever seen and it sends tingles from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. It's the best feeling in the world and once you feel it, you're stuck – you're going to be a treasure hunter for the rest of your life.

Are there any empty-handed days?
Absolutely – we've gone months without finding a thing – but that one good day keeps you coming back. Every time you dig a new hole, your imagination starts going again. If you keep looking, you're going to find it. What I learned from my grandfather is persistence: you've got to know and believe you're going to find that treasure.

So how does real-life treasure-hunting compare to the movies?
It looks great in the movies – they make it look like you just swim down and find all this treasure – but the reality can be months at a time where you don't find anything. It's never just sitting there either; there's always a lot of research and digging you've got to do before you get to it. It's a gruelling job and it can take the wind out of your sails for a long time – but then you find that one coin and, all of a sudden, everything's better again.

Have you ever had any scrapes with danger?
When I was 19, I was doing a search and I was almost out of air in my tanks. I should have come up sooner but I wanted to finish it. I went up for new tanks and right when I was at the top I realised that the line from a marker buoy was tangled around my foot. My head was barely out of the water and the boat was a quarter of a mile away. I was yelling and they started coming for me as quick as they could, and I was fighting with everything I had. I couldn't catch a breath to get down there and cut the line away. By the time the boat got to me I was seeing stars and starting to sink and I barely remember seeing this boathook coming towards me and grabbing hold of it.

What's the most valuable thing you've ever recovered?
On my best day I found 48 gold coins – we sell the least valuable of those for $7,000. Depending on how rare they are, they sell for up to $30,000.

So what happens to the treasure after you've recovered it?
We're a privately funded company so our investors get paid out first – they get paid in treasure. They're guaranteed to get back at least as much as they put in. If we have a bad year they're the first ones to get paid out while we might not see anything. In good years, which we have every two or three years, we pay the investors first, then we divide more treasure among the divers and the family keeps what's left. We have a store in Key West and another in Sebastian where we sell some of the treasure. The really unique pieces, however, we donate to museums.

Is there a particular treasure story - besides the Atocha - that really grabs your imagination?
If I could find any treasure it would be the lost city of Atlantis. My grandfather believed in it very much and many times he told me he knew where it was. One day I hope to get out there and find it, although the area we think it's in makes it quite unfeasible – there are governmental issues that would make it a tough job, but some day I'm going to find it.

Where is it?
I'm afraid I can't share that with you... [laughs]

You can find out more about Sean's family business at melfisher.com – and there's a 400-year old treasure mystery of your very own waiting for you in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for PlayStation 3.