Conference Agenda

Assessments of potential pollution risks from shipwrecks have included a variety of wrecks, including warships and merchant vessels from both world wars, tankers lost in storms, ships carrying munitions, and even a U-boat with a cargo of solid mercury. With the majority of these wrecks from World War II, these are now entering their ninth decade underwater, the hulls containing their hazardous cargo continuing to corrode and weaken. Responses to these pollution hazards have typically been reactive to oiled beaches or clear spills stemming from a wreck. As leaks from these wrecks become more and more likely, efforts to locate and assess them must become proactive. A particular concern is that many of them have never been found. New technologies are becoming available that can help us find these wrecks, including satellite imagery to detect leaks, and deep-water AUVs to survey large swaths of the deep for ships sunk offshore.

Spread across the Blue Pacific are more than 3,800 shipwrecks resulting from WWII and the nuclear testing programs across the region. Containing significant quantities of petrochemicals and ordnance, over the past 75+ years, these potentially polluting wrecks (PPWs) have deteriorated, with the risk of oil and chemical spills increasing as corrosion leads to structural collapse.

Working with partners across the region, the Major Projects Foundation has initiated a program of survey and assessment targeting the highest risk PPW. Work has been undertaken in Chuuk Lagoon, in the Federated States of Micronesia, host to the largest concentration of ‘high-environmental risk’ PPWs in the Pacific Region, as well as the PPWs located within the Bikini Atoll World Heritage Area.

This presentation discusses this work as a strategy to address the toxic legacies of WWII and nuclear testing and their enduring impact on the marine ecosystems, cultures and livelihoods of the Blue Pacific.

The idea of Natural vs Cultural heritage as separate concepts is incompatible with native identities. The archaeological record of historic and pre-Columbian Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous communities in the Caribbean shows a deep intertwining of culture with the islands’ geology and biodiversity. The word “Caribbean” itself identifies both the Sea and the people who are native to and grow on the islands. Consistent assemblages of mollusks, fish, corals, and plants are often undifferentiable across the historic/prehistoric divide or through times of climate change. Introduced species are also redefined and incorporated into the construction of what it means “to be Caribbean”. In the present, climate change, gentrification, disaster capitalism, and climate mitigation development pose severe threats to the continuity of these practices. In this presentation, we look at the Northeastern Caribbean (Puerto Rico and Barbuda) and consider pressing threats to the continuity of autochthonous identities living off the land and the sea.

The project Le naufrage de la flotte Walker (1711): Archéologie d’un lieu de mémoire maritime is bringing together scholars from history, archaeology, literature, oceanography and marine geology to unravel the circumstances surrounding the wreckage of Admiral Walker’s fleet in 1711 in the Saint-Lawrence estuary.

Among the projects undertaken is the analysis of the fleet ship logs. This paper addresses how their analysis provides environmental and historical information about the ships’ position within the fleet, the events’ sequence, and the meteorological and navigation conditions. Our approach exploits these data to lead archaeological campaigns in 2023 and 2024 that provide new data on the potential sites. The logbooks data are also used to understand the Saint-Lawrence estuary's 18th-century environmental conditions and evaluate the changes. This multidisciplinary collaboration provides a new vision where cultural and natural heritage can be considered, and where archaeology can play an active role with other sciences.

Maritime cultural heritage is under increasing threats from changes in the climate and the oceans. Many sites along the coastline and underwater are now being eroded and revealed after thousands of years. While this provides more information about our past it is also a direct indicator of change. Underwater, shipwrecks that have remained exposed on the seabed since their loss, are directly impacted by the environment. Like layers of paint on a canvas, benthic communities evolve to create new habitats, reflecting their surroundings and maritime health at each location. Every wreck holds an archive of data that accrued following creation of the site. UNESCO accredited NGO’s are now focusing attention on these sites by recording and cataloguing the condition of seabed communities along with archaeological remains and pollutants at wreck sites. The results are recoded in a database focused on informing the outcomes of the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

Globally over 8,500 wrecks are classified as ‘potentially polluting wrecks’ (PPWs) mainly originating from the two World Wars, and containing oil, chemicals and munitions. There is an increasing risk of pollution impacting the ocean environment and coastal communities from these wrecks, due to climate change, structural deterioration and lack of proactive management.
Response to such pollution is reactive, expensive and uncoordinated globally. Without proactive action, dealing with pollution from these wrecks could cost up to $340 billion, and inflict immeasurable environmental damage.

This paper details Project TANGAROA initiated by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, The Ocean Foundation and Waves Group, and which aims to:

• Develop an International Standard and protocols for assessment and intervention, and improve methodologies for proactive risk management of PPWs, with a technology roadmap;
• Develop a global framework for the near and long-term assessment, intervention and sharing of data;
• Develop an archive strategy for PPW datasets and their dissemination.

The essential role of integrated maritime and underwater cultural heritage (MUCH) with natural heritage – Ocean Heritage – in delivering sustainable development in our seas and oceans is particularly relevant to achieving the outcomes of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) and UNESCO’s Thematic Indicators for Culture in the 2030 Agenda. Human interaction with the historic environment – embodied in intangible as well as tangible heritage and traditional knowledge – are key elements in extending perspectives of deep time. Knowledge generated from cultural heritage data about past materials and societies’ interaction with the sea can help gauge future patterns regarding pollution, impacts of climate change, and other hazards. Many research projects and initiatives have engaged with the challenges of the UN Ocean Decade; as we near 2030, a review of where we stand on directions in practice and policies is warranted.

The U.S. Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) and the National Park Service’s Pearl Harbor National Memorial (PERL) are co-stewards of the wreck of USS Arizona (BB-39), which constitutes a National Historic Landmark and a Department of the Navy sunken military craft. It is also a significant war grave, and a sunken battleship located within the sensitive environment of Pearl Harbor, HI. This paper will present recent developments associated with USS Arizona, addressing how the terrestrial environment is impacting little-known aspects of the wreck, as well as proactive measures being taken to prevent adverse impacts of the wreck on the surrounding marine environment.

For more than forty years, Superfund sites identified by the United States after the passing of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 have been of interest to archaeologists for the prehistoric and historic archaeological resources that are, at times, discovered in these sites. While cultural resources have been documented within Superfund sites, the impacts of environmental events on these sites caused by climate change are being researched through studies around the world. As a case study, this presentation will focus on past work conducted by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum on underwater archaeological sites in Onondaga Lake, New York, the Hudson River at Fort Edward, New York, and the Pine Street Barge Canal in Burlington, Vermont. The goal is to assess how both hazardous waste materials and climate change have affected these sites in the past along with envisioning their site integrity for the near future.

In 2020 and 2021 the Castle and KNP Complex Fires burned through multiple sequoia groves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks resulting in unprecedented loss of iconic monarch sequoias. Overshadowed by the headline grabbing ecological devastation are the impacts to the many archaeological sites within the fire footprint. With the continued and increasing threat of extreme wildfires, comes the need to critically examine landscape level approaches to archaeological survey and site documentation. This paper looks at how Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are addressing climate change, preparing for the next big fire, and reflecting on the losses from the previous fires.