Bottom Trawling
Bottom fishing has been a source of concern for environmentalists and fishing scientists for centuries. The first instance of the activity is in a 1375 English Parliamentary document, which highlights the practice’s destructive nature ( Petition by the Commons to King Edward III, 1376, see Bolster 2012, p. 235 ). Bottom fishing impacts the natural history of the sea in many ways, including by reducing terrain, compression, and resuspension of sands, decreasing difficulty, causing both physical and chemical damage to the ecology, and the decline of fish stocks. However, this task also has an impact on the natural heritage.
The lost archaeological material cannot ever be recovered, according to Brennan and al. ( Brennan et al. ). However, legislation that restricts trawling can aid biological communities ‘ recovery. 2015 ). To find ways to control harm, marine archaeologists and sea ecologists must collaborate and connect with fishers and policy makers. Damage to shipwrecks may include combined sediments, changing molecular decay processes, aberration destruction and activity, and destruction of a site’s context. Also, nets and other fishing products can grab on a catastrophe, warping the metallic features or cutting through sturdy elements. The project’s integrity can be totally destroyed.
Deep Seabed Mine
There are also upcoming difficulties for UCH. Deep seabed mining operations ( DSM) that interact with tangible UCH and intangible. Full ground mining ( DSM) is a potential business industry attempting to mine mineral deposits from the ocean, in the hopes of extracting economically valuable nutrients such as manganese, copper, cobalt, zinc, and rare earth metal. However, this mining is posed to destroy a thriving and interconnected ecosystem that hosts a staggering array of biodiversity: the deep ocean.
Commercial DSM has not started, but various companies are trying to make it a reality. The most recent proposed methods for nodule mining include the application of a mining vehicle, typically a very large machine resembling a three-story tall tractor, to the seafloor. Once on the seabed, the vehicle will vacuum the top four inches of the seabed, sending the sediment, rocks, crushed animals, and nodules up to a vessel waiting on the surface. On the ship, the minerals are sorted and the remaining wastewater slurry ( a mix of sediment, water, and processing agents ) is returned to the ocean via a discharge plume.
The current draft regulations for the International Seabed Authority ( ISA ) for exploration and exploitation are insufficiently guard against UCH. For instance, the regulations do not mandate the real-time monitoring of operations and the transmission of relevant data, which would enable the identification of tangible UCH and the cessation of destructive activities in the name of heritage.
DSM will have an impact on cultural intangibles as well. In one particular instance, noise from DSM has the potential to have a negative impact on local activities like shark calling and whale migration, which are important to many people around the world ( Tilot et al., 2001 ). 2021 ). Concerns have also been raised about DSM’s interactions with some cultures ‘ attitudes toward ocean responsibility or special regard for the deep ocean. Although these discussions have not been included in the ISA’s regulatory development process, a new intersessional is convening to work on this.
Figure 1. Threats to UCH from seabed mining. A sample of the UCH at risk from the proposed seabed mining activities by the ISA ( Source: Image created by Charlotte Jarvis based on ISA Information, SPREP Pacific Wreck Database, and Turner et al. 2020 ).
Potentially Polluting Wrecks
Additional threats to heritage, both natural and cultural, can come from the material itself. The World War II wrecks are a significant pollution threat to the marine environment, fishing, and other livelihoods that depend on a healthy ocean, despite being a part of our cultural heritage. A shipwreck that has a cargo or a lot of its own fuel inside it and has the potential to pose an environmental risk ( PPW) is a potentially polluting wreck ( see Brennan et al., 2004 ). 2023 for more information ).
The wrecks identified as PPWs include freighters, ship wrecks from parts of the 20th century that sank in storms, and are most likely those that were sunk during World War II, particularly oil tankers. Only now do we have a better understanding of some of the environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill and the research conducted in the Gulf of Mexico following these events. Although some oil leaks have known origins, many of them have unknown origins and will harm the environment ( NOAA 2012 ).
A New Project and Steps Forward
A new project from TOF aims to raise awareness of these risks from deep sea mining, potentially toxic wrecks, and bottom trawling. The International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage ( ICUCH) from the International Committee on Monuments and Sites ( ICOMOS ) is supporting the project in partnership with the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre. It is a recognized activity under the UN Ocean Science Decade. While the UN Decade for Ocean Science ( 2021-2030 ) has hundreds of endorsed ocean science activities, projects, and programmes that relate to natural heritage and ocean biosciences, there are very few endorsements that focus on cultural heritage. The Ocean Decade Heritage Network led the first and is currently one of the only ones still in existence. We are also very fortunate to have some of the team members from the Framework Programme and the Heritage Network who contributed to the books and helped with the themes.
When it comes to the ocean, cultural heritage and natural heritage are related. UCH can promote marine biodiversity and promote sea connectivity. For example, with fishing, Pearson, and Thompson ( 2023, 3 ) argue that it is beneficial for sites with high UCH and high natural heritage to co-occur and be used strategically together. Shipwrecks often function as artificial reefs providing habitats, shelter, and adding hard materials to an otherwise soft seafloor ( Brennan 2016, 172, Krumholz and Brennan 2015 ). Protected shipwrecks can increase the strength of the surrounding fish stocks through this” spray over” process. Shipwrecks can be just as crucial to the ecology of the seafloor as a wild coral reef or seamount. Shipwrecks should not only be viewed in terms of cultural significance; instead, they are a part of both our cultural history and the natural ocean landscape.
Sources
Bolster, W. Jeffrey. 2012. In the Age of Sail, fishermen in the Mortal Sea. Cambridge, Mass. London: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press.
Brennan, Michael L., Dan Davis, Robert D. Ballard, Arthur C. Trembanis, J. Ian Vaughn, Jason S. Krumholz, James P. Delgado et al. 2015. ” Quantification of the Bottom Trawl Fishing Damage to Historic Shipwreck Sites.” Marine Geology 371, no. 2: 82–8.
Brennan, Michael L. 2016. ” Quantifying Impacts of Trawling to Shipwrecks”. InSite Formation Processes of Submerged Shipwrecks, edited by Matthew E. Keith, 157–79. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Krumholz, Jason S., and Michael L. Brennan. 2015. Finding a potential management synergy is revealed in” Fishing for Common Ground: Investigations of the Impact of Trawling on Ancient Shipwreck Sites.” Marine Policy 61, 127–33.
National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration. 2012.2012 Risk Assessment for Potentially Polluting Wrecks in US Waters. https ://sanctuaries .noaa.gov/protect/ppw/pdfs/2013_potentiallypollutingwrecks .pdf.
Pearson, Natali, and Benjamin S. Thompson. 2023. ” Saving Two Fish with One Wreck: Maximizing Synergies in Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection and Marine Biodiversity Conservation.” Marine Policy 152, 105613.
Tilot, Virginie, Klaas Willaert, Bleuenn Guilloux, Wenting Chen, Clement Y. Mulalap, François Gaulme, Tamatoa Bambridge et al. 2021. ” Traditional Dimensions of Seabed Resource Management in the Context of Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific: Learning From the Socio-Ecological Interconnectivity Between Island Communities and the Ocean Realm” Frontiers in Marine Science 8 ( April ): 637938.
Turner, Phillip, Sophie Cannon, Sarah DeLand, James Delgado, David Eltis, Patrick Halpin, Michael Kanu, et al. 2020. ” Memorializing the Middle Passage on the Atlantic Seabed in Regions Beyond National Jurisdiction.” Marine Policy 122. https ://doi .org/10.1016/j.marpol .2020.104254.
