Can I Dive with You? Citizen Science Challenges in Maritime Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "What’s in a Name? Discussions of Terminology, Theory and Infrastructure of Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Citizen science initiatives have demonstrated usefulness for public agencies responsible for the stewardship of commonly held resources. NOAA, NPS, USDA, USGS and others advertise multiple opportunities at Citizenscience.gov. Maritime archaeology has joined these citizen initiatives as acceptance of the field in academia and government has increased. NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries supports several place-based efforts advancing heritage management and preservation across the sanctuary system. However, the ocean imposes some unique challenges to public collaboration underwater, influencing both national agencies (NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program) and international capacity building initiatives (UNESCO’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Foundation courses). Safe diving protocols place operational limits on how agencies interact with public (recreational) divers, and federal preservation mandates often restrict public dissemination of site data…how we gather data and what we do with it afterwards. This presentation examines some of these challenges associated with citizen science efforts in maritime archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• What’s in a Name? Discussions of Terminology, Theory and Infrastructure of Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology