On 18 May 2018, our new Project Manager, Dani Wilkinson, attended the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) Steering Committee for Underwater Cultural Heritage (SCUCH) Policy Forum meeting on the theme of ‘Managing Shipwrecks: Towards better integration of the interests and responsibilities that affect how we look after maritime heritage’. Timed to follow the release of a new publication by Antony Firth of Fjordr Ltd. and published by the Honor Frost Foundation called Managing Shipwrecks. Its core purpose was to bring into perspective the number of different interests in shipwrecks and the complex ways that these relate to each other. Heritage is the sector we are most familiar with; however, there are nine other equally-important sectors covering:
Fishing, International interests, Public and environment risks, Commemoration, Sea-use, Nature conservation, Ownership and recovery of wrecks, Navigation safety and wreck removal/disposal, and Recreation.
Each section of the publication is dedicated to a sector and the ways that shipwrecks play a role within that sector. To compliment this, the Policy Forum included thematic sessions with papers discussing improving integration across sectors and recognising the value of wrecks.
The final discussion was led by two discussants, one with the intention to cause controversy by pointing out that ‘protection’ is only one facet of management and there are cases where perhaps protection should not be an objective. The second presented three different case studies of countries that had ratified the 2001 UNESCO Convention but had different approaches to underwater cultural heritage with varying effectiveness, the main changes being a result of different mindsets rather than different legislative controls. It was discussed how messages for the protection of heritage and antiquities need to be tailored to audiences to encourage a different mindset. The meeting closed with recommendations based on the Managing Shipwrecks publication.