Innovative Approaches to Marine Heritage Management

a view from across the divide

Our Role

• Statutory advisor for heritage in England

And to:• increase the

understanding of the past• broaden access and

appreciation of the heritage

• conserve and enhance the historic environment

National Heritage Act 2002

• Territorial Sea• Internal Waters

– adjacent to England

• Advice given for CS and relevant sites overseas

UK Hydrographic Office

‘Blue Water’ strategies

• Eighteenth Century foreign policy to avoid Continental involvement

• Trade was the lifeblood of the nation and it was in overseas trade and overseas colonies that the future of Britain lay

• The Navy should therefore be used to defend merchant shipping

www.queens.cam.ac.uk

National Monuments Record

• Wrecks and casualties within the 12 mile limit with a cut off date of 1945

• Recently expanded to included aircraft casualties

• 32,777 identified wrecks and recorded casualties

www.heritagegateway.org.uk

“It sometimes occurs to me that the British have more heritage than is good for them.”

Bill Bryson

Designation

• Protection of Wrecks Act 1973– 61 wreck sites designated in UK

• Designated on account of theirimportance being:– Historical– Archaeological– Artistic

• Vulnerability considered during assessment

Case-Study: Iona II

• Launched 1863 as a Saloon Steamer• Purchased 1864 to run the American Blockade by

Charles Hopkins Boster of Richmond, Virginia• Lost in 1864 en route

to Nassau• Discovered in 1976

Paddle-wheel and Shaft, Wessex Archaeology

2007 White Paper

• Unified Register• Broaden range of assets that

can be protected• Decisions based on ‘Special

Interest’• Interim Protection• Duty on Receiver of Wreck

HP Reform Team

• Prepare Detailed Asset Descriptions – DADs

• Address Strategic Designation– Submarines– East India Company ships

The loss of the Rooswijk, www.dagjeweg.nl

Unified Register

• Unified Register of all Heritage Assets• Creation of Marine Heritage Sites• Protection of non-vessel archaeology

DO17, Goodwin Sands, off Kent

Special Interest

• Future designation decisions based upon assessment of ‘special interest’

• Detailed Principles of Selection will define what is ‘special’ in the marine environment

• Can a vessel be a Special Building?• What is a vessel?

London, historic warship, Thames Estuary

Interim Protection

• All designation decisions will be preceded by consultation

• Protection for Asset during Consultation

Marine Protected Areas

• Any area of intertidal or sub-tidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora or fauna, historical or cultural features, which is protected by legal or other effective means.

• We seek to examine the relationship between MPAs & the historic environment.

1707 warship lying within a Marine Park, SW England

National Policy

• In 2005, the UK Govt announced its adoption of the Annex to the 2001 UNESCO Convention as ‘best practice’ for archaeology.

2008 Heritage at Risk

• Framework to assess the state of all designated historic assets and to understand their:– Condition– Vulnerability– Current management patterns

• Maintain significance for both present

and future generations

Identified Threats

• Inshore Fisheries– Fishing– Potting– Bait digging

• Natural Processes– Biological Decay– Erosion

• Socio-economic Activity– Recreation– Development

Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology

Conservation Management

• Identify a shared vision of how values & features can be conserved, maintained and enhanced

• Seeks to balance protection with

economic and social needs

• Local and regional involvement

2008 Reduction of Risk

• Remedial Recording

and Stabilisation

CISMAS

Summary Principles

• Changes to the way in which our marine heritage is enjoyed, understood, valued and cared for is in progress.

• Public engagement will be at the heart of these changes.

www.english-heritage.org.uk