Download (PDF 535 KB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/19698.pdf
Abstract
Increasingly, diminished monetary resources to pay for full-time or project-based professional archaeologists limits the scope and speed with which professional archaeology occurs, particularly for underwater resources such as shipwrecks. However, such resources are being found with increasing regularity; human activity on wrecks combines with natural forces to degrade the wrecks -- whether intentionally or unintentionally -- and reduce the amount of knowledge to be gained from them. More easily accessible due to technology developments, such resources are difficult to protect through access restrictions, enforcement and litigation. Thus, alternative strategies must be considered. Avocational programs, both in underwater archaeology and maritime history research, are being developed in Michigan and elsewhere as a way to help document, assess and monitor these wrecks and develop an ethic of stewardship.
Parent Publication
Citation
Vander Stoep, Gail A. 2001. The role of avocational archaeology and history in managing underwater cultural resources: a Michigan case study. In: Kyle, Gerard, comp., ed. 2001. Proceedings of the 2000 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-276. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 228-233
