Page 394 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 14: Cultural Resource Management 373
ernment and institutional policies, ensuring that the protection process has long-term stability.
Another crucial issue is how to change the existing perception that mar- itime archaeology is the realm of the academic, with little benefit filtering down from academe to the public sector. This widely held perception has, in many cases, a basis of truth and has resulted in a marginalization of the general public and alienation of the diving community, who see a limited ability to be involved in this type of work. The general public has little idea of the issues involved and their main exposure to the field is in the more sensational aspects of treasure hunting. This will be discussed further in the next section.
V. IDENTIFICATION OF THE RESOURCE
The resource—underwater sites—will generally fall into three main cat- egories: (1) sites that are known to the authorities; (2) sites that are known to some people, but not the authorities; and (3) sites that have not been found. Location of sites requires a complex strategy. This includes negotia- tion with people who know of sites but are reluctant to reveal their location, searching for sites in shallow water, and searching for sites in deep water.
Locating sites involves the use of one or more different strategies; for example, visually searching for sites using divers, informants, and remote sensing techniques. The visual search will be the most time-consuming and most difficult to manage, requiring training and a carefully prepared survey program and has been discussed in Chapter 3. The use of informants raises the sensitive issue of how to manage and influence individuals who know the locations of sites. Remote sensing is expensive and produces limited returns for the financial outlay. Assuming that many of the deep-water sites are probably known through bottom trawling or fishing activities, remote sensing may be best employed to locate precisely the position of these approximately known sites. The general issues of locating sites has been dis- cussed in Chapter 3.
The ultimate protection of sites requires the development of strategies that will ensure they are not disturbed. This can only be achieved when the majority of the people involved agree that these sites need to be protected because it is beneficial to do so. Cultural tourism can play an important role in this process, because in many countries tourism is likely to be one of the most important industries. In other areas this may be less significant, although the local dive industry can benefit. Recording the sites will require the cooperation of volunteers and will require infrastructure to help ensure that the sites are properly managed and maintained in the future.