In 1988, a nonprofit organisation named the CSS Alabama Association was created to conduct a scientific survey of the wreck. Although it now lies in French territorial waters, the U.S. government claimed possession of it on the grounds that "Alabama" had struck to "Kearsarge" and that the location had not been within French territorial waters at the time of the battle. On 3 October 1989, France and the United States signed an agreement recognising the wreck as a common historic heritage for both nations and established a joint scientific team for its exploration.