Photograph courtesy Nautilus Live
Posted on 07/20/2013 4:50:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Dr. Mike Brennan: Unfortunately, on the E/V Nautilus expeditions, we have seen that many of the wrecks in the Aegean and Black Seas are heavily damaged by trawling activity. For example, one shipwreck, Eregli E, is the most trawled shipwreck in the Black Sea based upon scatter and damage to the artifacts and surrounding seabed. When we found it last year we saw that it was really damaged. The site had been so disturbed, it uncovered materials from beneath the sediment, including human bones. The bones had been preserved in the mud, but then had been ripped out by trawls and that’s why we actually could see them. When we returned this year the artifacts we had seen the year before were either further damaged or gone, including the bones that were completely missing, again due to trawling... There are some commercial salvage companies using trawling as an excuse and justification for the salvage of these wreck sites, but our research shows that enforcement of certain restrictions to trawl sites can help protect these areas in situ rather than bringing them up. Shipwreck sites have reached an equilibrium with the surrounding environment, and in situ preservation is the best way to keep them intact, as called for by the UNESCO convention for the preservation of underwater cultural heritage. The establishment and protection of more marine protected areas can regulate the trawling and protect the wrecks underwater. Also, the wrecks work as artificial reefs, fish will use ceramics to hide out there. They can’t hide in the muddy sea floor -- if you were to rope off the area -- you would increase the fisheries.
(Excerpt) Read more at newswatch.nationalgeographic.com ...
Photograph courtesy Nautilus Live
alas, can’t post any of this more detailed article:
Titanic explorer: Ancient shipwrecks lost to trawlers
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012/09/13/ballard-team-discovers-ancient-black-sea-shipwreck-destroyed-by-trawlers/57768352/1
I don’t care, I wasn’t going diving there anyway.
Hope the consumers there look through the local canned fish carefully before taking a mouthful.
Another HAIR ON FIRE WARNING.. We give these Universities and the Environazies billions and they don’t do the work to explore those sites that they identify? They found it at least a year earlier, but did nothing to flag it?
I am as much a lover of antiquities as the next guy, but WTF.. I’m not returning to the horse and buggy, or a bike, which they would love.. whatever..
Sounds like they wouldn’t have found some of this stuff if it hadn’t been for trawling.
So ....
I am sort of a history buff myself. But unfortunately if people can’t even learn enough from recent recorded history about the devastation that socialist government programs cause... Then how is knowing the diet of ancient Greek sailors going to help anyone? Shall we ban this form of commercial fishing and create economic hardship on another group of people so that deep sea divers will be able to create a more interesting National Geographic Television documentary?
The operation is very expensive; first comes the survey to identify a number of sites; that is followed by figuring out which ones are most likely to yield an ancient wreck; then the order of exploration is determined; then the detailed study of those sites begins. It’s heavily dependent on funding of course, but on the Black Sea in particular it’s also weather-dependent.
Ballard’s team needed money, and have a rare, even unique expertise; they were offered a pile of cash to go find that Turkish fighter plane shot down by Syria last year, and went there to do it.
Ballard found a bunch of ancient wrecks while searching for a modern military wreck for Israel. He looked for and found the Titanic with the money and time left over from his successful search for lost US nuclear subs, then raised money to go back and examine the Titanic in more detail.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080602-titanic-secret.html
No, they found the wreck, then got hired by Turkey to look for the lost fighter plane, found it, went back, and the trawler had basically destroyed the site.
No need. When everyone who depends on trawled fish starves, the rest of us can have our carbon emissions-free flying cars...
Exactly.. Thats what I’m sayin... :)
Not to speak about another Michael Moore, Burns Docupoop, for Discovery Channel.. I’ll chose “Save the planet from these nincompoops” for $800, Alex.. :)
I guess it is all up to the choice made .... now they have to live by it. They chose to go after the Turkish fighter jet ... a choice and the consequences that go along with it.
I sure hope they keep those trawlers away from that ufo in the Baltic Sea.
If it is choice between saving fishermen and saving shipwreck, I vote saving fishermen.
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