UPDATE: Some more media outlets have begun to explore the threat to shipwrecks and other archaeological sites posed by the oil spill. Click here to read an Associated Press article on the subject.
This link was just sent to me by my friend David Johnson, a fellow Board member for the Institute of Maritime History, and the speaker representing maritime cultural resources at the recent TEDx Oil Spill livestream video broadcast. This event brought together many passionate experts, including marine scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle, and while I haven’t watched the entire broadcast it seems like a great and important production. At 2:04:00 David speaks on the importance of preserving shipwrecks in these threatened waters. He does a great job and its worth watching.
Click here to play the broadcast. You can fast forward to 2:04:00 to go straight to Dave’s speech on the shipwrecks threatened by the spill.
I’d also like to express our support of our colleagues in the Gulf who are on the front lines of this crisis, including the archaeologists at University of West Florida, who had to recently suspend excavations at the Emanuel Point II shipwreck due to the spill.
