While I agree that it is immoral and it should not occur, it is not technically stealing. As far as I know every state in the US has an abandonment provision stating that if property is abandoned and recovered by someone else, it is not considered "stolen". Calling the law would not help. Unfortunately we will just have to let karma take its course on those that practice this disgrace.
The legal definition of abandonment is "the absolving of ownership due to to the willful leaving of property in a public place".
The thing is, for property to be truly considered abandoned, there has to be willful intent by the person who put it there to not recover it. Nobody intends to throw their disc into a pond. In fact the primary rationale of putting your name and phone# on a disc implies that if it is ever lost, you're trying to leave some means by which it can be returned to you.
And there are a number of scenarios where you could make an argument that a disc lying in a pond is NOT abandoned. If I throw a disc into a pond during a tournament, I just can't stop and hold everyone up to retrieve it. Even playing casually, if I throw a disc in, and after attempting unsuccessfully to retrieve it for half an hour, I decide to head home and get some waders, a rake or a net, even if its a few days after I threw it in, the fact is I'm still attempting to recover it.
Such property would be legally considered lost or misplaced, not necessarily abandoned until a certain degree of time has passed, and with lost or misplaced property there are legal distinctions on what the finder's rights are versus abandoned property.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost,_mislaid,_and_abandoned_property
And just for the record, if it ever went to court, any lawyer (even a stupid one) would be able to argue that leaving a lost disc, even if searched for, is willful abandonment.
Yes, but considering what a lawyer services cost in relation to a golf disc, I don't think any party would be stupid enough to take this to court (at least I hope not). That really underscores the reason most players don't make any super effort to go after their waterborne discs. Its simply easier in terms of time, money and elbow grease to replace them.
And I really don't understand the motivations of people who fish discs out and either keep them for their own use, or to sell them to random strangers. That disc you find in the water may very well not be a good disc for you. Similarly, the person whose name is on that disc likely chose that specific mold and weight for a reason. They are going to probably going to give you a better reward for its return than eBay or Play It Again Sports will.
And just as I think its bad karma not to return found discs with names on them, I think its equally bad karma for the owner to not offer a reward to "fishermen" who make an effort to get it back to you. I will gladly pay $3-6 for a returned disc, or let the finder keep it.
