New Approaches to Locating and Addressing Threats from Potentially Polluting Wrecks

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Intersection Between Natural and Cultural Heritage and the Pressing Threats to Both", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

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.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Intersection Between Natural and Cultural Heritage and the Pressing Threats to Both   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow