(AP): Dumping a weighted body overboard might sound like something criminals do, but a new Australian company offering this as a funeral option says it's not only legal but that it preserves the environment. "Cemeteries use up a lot of valuable land these days and we seem to be getting so crowded," Guy Richards, owner of Sea Burials Australia, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio today, adding that a lot of energy is used for cremations.

While Richards, who operates a charter boat along Australia's east coast, has performed only one sea burial so far, he says more than a dozen people have booked themselves in for a final resting place under the sea.

Sea burials are regulated by the federal Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 and governed by Environment Australia, the government department.

The department's web site said there are three or four burials in Australian waters every year.

Coffins are banned, and the body must be weighted and wrapped in a shroud with multiple openings to allow putrefaction gases and trapped air to escape.

Before granting permission, Environment Australia must be satisfied the body will not be washed ashore from the burial site or retrieved by fishing boats. The body must be dropped at a site where it we be able to sink at least 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).

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