LUCY BLUE

Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton

Maritime cultural heritage is under threat! Many sites in the coastal and near shore zone are being lost faster than we can record them. This paper briefly reviews the nature of threat, anthropogenic and environmental, before addressing through ongoing projects, ways in which research and capacity building can help counter the effects of threat.

Documentation is key and the Maritime Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa (MarEA) project reveals ways that baseline documentation and working with local partners can help quantify the nature of the resource and the degree of threat. The community-based, maritime ethnographic project in Bagamoyo, Tanzania - Bahari Yetu, Urithi Wetu (Our Ocean, Our Heritage) – outlines the diverse and rich nature of living maritime cultural heritage and how co-creation can help sustain both livelihoods and cultural practise. Finally, the work of the Honor Frost Foundation that supports maritime archaeological research, capacity and education in the eastern Mediterranean, highlights how working on multiple levels to enhance resources and visibility of maritime cultural heritage and can help drive change and underpin regional, self-sustaining stewardship.

In the context of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2030) it is imperative that heritage is placed centre stage in the battle for holistic protection of our seas and oceans.