Scottish Marine Bill; New OME push for permission to work on the Victory site?; Thames Discovery Programme Films; Defra Consultation; New EH maritime post; English research framework website; Champions of England; Slavery Conference; Queered Seas; Fly Navy; Pirate bones?

 

 

Scottish Marine Bill

The Scottish Marine Bill is now before the Scottish Parliament. The Bill introduces a framework for the sustainable management of the seas around Scotland, ensuring the need to protect our seas is integrated with economic growth of marine industries. It introduces:

• Marine planning: a new statutory marine planning system to sustainably manage the increasing, and often conflicting, demands on our seas
• Marine licensing: a simpler licensing system, minimising the number of licences required for development in the marine environment to cut bureaucracy and encourage economic investment
• Marine conservation: improved marine nature and historic conservation with new powers to protect and manage areas of importance for marine wildlife, habitats and historic monuments
• Seal conservation: much improved protection for seals and a new comprehensive licence system to permit appropriate management when necessary.
• Enforcement: a range of enhanced powers of marine conservation and licensing

New OME push for permission to work on the Victory site?

Odyssey Marine Exploration appears to have accomplished the unusual feat of drawing criticism from both the  fishing and archaeological communities.

OME has published a new report claiming that trawling is causing widespread damage to English Channel wrecks.

Gregg Stemm of Odyssey is reported to have described the English Channel as being “like a giant industrial wasteland”, with “incredible devastation” caused by the activities of the fishing industry. Representatives of that industry are reported to be less than happy with these claims.

OME is hoping to recover valuable artefacts from the recently found wreck of HMS Victory. Some archaeologists suspect that the publication of this report may be designed to increase the pressure on the UK Government to accede to the company’s plans.

English Heritage is currently undertaking an archaeological assessment of the Victory.

Thames Discovery Programme Films

The Thames Discovery Programme has uploaded the first two episodes of the Foreshore Recording & Observation Group (FROG) films made at the Custom House foreshore site in February 2009 by Anies Hassan, entitled “FROG @ Custom House”.

Defra Consultation

Defra is currently consulting on the draft Strategy for Marine Protected Areas. If you wish to have your say before any MAG response is drafted then contact one of the committee members asap.

New EH maritime post

EH are advertising for a maritime archaeologist capable of drafting and issuing EH advice on environmental assessments and applications for commercial mineral extraction. The closing date is the 1^st June 2009.

English research framework website

The website for the Maritime and Marine Historic Environment Research Framework project is now up and running.

Champions of England

In article in the June 2009 edition of Diver magazine, Alison Hamer of English Heritage asks for a new generation of ‘underwater custodians’ to step forward from the sports diving community.

Slavery Conference

As part of the legacy of the 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, English Heritage, the National Trust and the University of the West of England (UWE) are jointly sponsoring a one-day conference on 21 November 2009 at the London School of Economics exploring the links between the country house in Britain and the Atlantic slave trade.

A conference flyer has been e-mailed to MAG members.

Queered Seas

The first international conference on homosexuality and the sea will take place at the Merseyside Maritime Museum from 12-14 November 2009. Building on the book by Dr Jo Stanley and the National Museums of Liverpool touring exhibition ‘Hello Sailor!’, the conference will examine questions such as what was it about the culture of life at sea that permitted what was often outlawed ashore?

Further details can be obtained from Eleanor Moffat, Curator of Maritime Collections at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Fly Navy

The new ‘Fly Navy 100’ exhibition at the Fleet Air Arm Museum celebrates the 100^th anniversary of British naval aviation in 2009.

Pirate bones?

The American writer and filmmaker Kevin P. Duffus is trying to find out whether bones removed from a grave in Washington, N.C. are the remains of Edward Salter, a member of Blackbeard’s pirate crew.

Important historic vessel scrapped; Draft Heritage Protection Bill; Maritime Archaeological Archives project; MCA hydrography webpage updated; Iona I; UNESCO Convention; IfA geophysics research

 

 

Important historic vessel scrapped

National Historic Ships has issued an official statement on the scrapping of MV Wincham, a Weaver packet and a key vessel in the National Historic Fleet. A copy of the statement has been e-mailed to MAG members.

Draft Heritage Protection Bill

DCMS is reported in the April edition of HELM to have put in a bid to include the Bill in the next parliamentary session. The outcome is awaited.

Maritime Archaeological Archives project

Mapping Maritime Collection Areas’, the first of three reports to be generated by the Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology as part of the ‘Securing a Future for Maritime Archaeological Archives’ project, is now available to download. Last minute contributions to the Element 2 phase of the project are still being welcomed.

MCA hydrography webpage updated

The MCA have updated the hydrography section of its website. Included as part of this update is a new ‘Pan-Government hydrographic data’ page which offers some background to the recently signed UK Government Hydrographic Data Sharing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). As part of the MoU, a mechanism was required to make participating organisations’ survey area shapefiles available for distribution. The first three of these files are now available for download from this page.

Iona I

An ‘archaeocast’ on the recent diving and geophysical investigation of the nineteenth century Confederate blockade runner Iona I for Historic Scotland is now available to download on the Wessex Archaeology website.

UNESCO Convention

A 25th country is reported to have ratified the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The ratification of Bosnia Herzegovina brings to seven the number of Balkan states that have ratified.

IfA geophysics research

The IfA GeoSIG Archiving Working Group are conducting research into archiving practices, standards and guidance within geophysics. Any organisations willing to participate can obtain a downloadable questionnaire.