Threats to Our Ocean Heritage: Incorporating the UN Decade for Ocean Science into Underwater Cultural Heritage Management and Protection

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "UN Decade for Ocean Science's Heritage Network: Historical Archaeology's Contribution", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

While the UN Decade for Ocean Science (2021-2030) has hundreds of endorsed ocean science activities, projects, and programmes relating to natural heritage and ocean biosciences, there are very few endorsements that focus on cultural heritage. The Cultural Heritage Framework Programme, led by the Ocean Decade Heritage Network was the first. This paper will discuss the upcoming book project, Threats to Our Ocean Heritage, which includes three volumes on UCH destruction from bottom trawling, potentially polluting wrecks, and deep seabed mining. The books are an endorsed activity and present a case study in how the UN Decade can be used to bring cultural heritage to the table with natural heritage and bring underwater archaeology to the ocean sciences. Seabed mining in particular is a future threat to focus on as the regulations are still being moulded and there is great advocation for a moratorium on the practice.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• UN Decade for Ocean Science's Heritage Network: Historical Archaeology's Contribution

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow