7.1 Introduction

This paper proposes that three elements are required in order to develop a fit-for purpose management regime to protect underwater cultural heritage (UCH) from negative impacts caused by some fishing gear: evidence-based characterisation of impacts; understanding of the pressures and constraints acting upon fishing communities; and commitment to engagement with fishers and industry associations. In addition, strategies for protection of UCH from fishing and other hazards cannot be developed in isolation from existing marine management regimes. This challenge of integration and alignment with broader stewardship of complex marine systems is set to grow more difficult as industrial activity grows, competition for resources intensifies, and governments and agencies seek to exert new levels of control over larger areas of ocean.

There are more than three million shipwrecks estimated worldwide according to UNESCO (Croome, 1999). The UNESCO convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage, encourages in situ preservation (UNESCO, 2001) and states that wrecks older than 100 years count as a cultural heritage site. This definition now encompasses many metal shipwrecks, including World War I casualties and soon will encompass casualties from World War II. Significant conflicts of interest are now evident—even in the context of conservation-oriented assessments (Firth, 2018). Shipwrecks are habitats for marine life, enhancing biodiversity and biomass (Balazy et al., 2019). They can also pose environmental pollution threats, especially if they contain hazardous substances such as oil, chemicals, or munitions (Ndungu et al., 2017; Szafrańska et al., 2021). Indeed, this issue of potentially hazardous and polluting legacy wrecks is receiving focused attention from influential advisory bodies. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently passed resolutions urging its members to take action with a view to preserving biodiversity (IUCN, 2020). The challenge of addressing the urgent need for remediation while also acknowledging heritage value (including potential war grave status) will need to be addressed comprehensively. Marine spatial planning issues often arise as wrecks can interfere with the ever-increasing offshore sub-sea engineering efforts, such as the installation of cables, pipelines, or wind farms with a need to protect heritage value—a source of potential added costs to developers and operators (Papageorgiou, 2018). Shipwrecks are also treated as geohazards and obstacles to marine engineering, posing risks to navigation or safety.

The impact of fishing activity on UCH must be addressed but such impacts can also be a major concern to owners and operators of ocean infrastructure who have proposed various forms of fishing exclusion zones and technical remedies. Therefore, while UCH and its management, as described above, can give rise to conflicts of interest, there are also shared concerns between heritage managers and other stakeholders in the context of a complex marine management and stewardship environment.

The first section of this chapter highlights the need for evidence-based characterisation of the impact of fishing and integration of this analysis with wider consideration of site formation dynamics. A major European Research Council research project, ENDURE, is introduced. Based at the National Museum of Denmark, ENDURE is a multi-year programme that aims to disentangle natural and anthropogenic decay processes and determine their cumulative effects on UCH. The aim is to validate the efficacy of in situ preservation.Footnote 1 The subsequent sections develop the proposition that the successful application of such foundational work on new management regimes will be compromised in the absence of full appreciation of the pressures and constraints operating on the fishing industry in general and coastal fisheries in particular. Effective management of UCH requires concerted effort committed to close engagement with fishers. Not all fishing activity poses an equal threat to UCH, and it is critical that an understanding of material differences in impact influences the management solutions proposed.

The second section introduces the work of Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), shaping a future for the fishing industry that is safe for all fishers working in a sustainable ocean economy. Today’s fisheries are part of a highly stressed marine system, and the human cost of fishing is appallingly high. LRF’s work will help inform proposals for protection of UCH that avoid exacerbating occupational safety challenges. The third section presents work undertaken by Historic England (HE) to engage with fishers in order to mitigate damage to UCH and develop fit-for-purpose management regimes. It emphasises the need for broad engagement with agencies as well as industry bodies and communities.

7.2 Out of Sight but Not Out of Mind: Sustainable Preservation of Underwater Archaeological Sites

The scale of the heritage management challenge is considerable with a wide range of site types in complex, dynamic environments. Consequently, a desk-based approach for identification and assessment of the most significant site formation processes is urgently needed especially as rapidly progressing marine remote sensing techniques allows effective non-intrusive detection, characterisation, and monitoring of underwater sites (Plets et al., 2011; Westley et al., 2019). The remote characterisation and monitoring of change at individual sites (Quinn & Boland, 2010; Brennan et al., 2016) includes environmental factors to understand the physical formation processes that are most influential in determining levels of site preservation (Smyth & Quinn, 2014; Fernández-Montblanc et al., 2018; Quinn & Smyth, 2018; Geraga et al., 2020; Majcher et al., 2021). Gregory and Manders (2015) formed a baseline process-based approach to control, assess and achieve in situ preservation.

One of its central points is the assessment of the most significant chemical, biological and physical threats to the site. Understanding the formation of underwater sites also enables more accurate archaeological interpretation. Assessing environmental factors can not only lead to better understanding of events that caused the sinking of the vessel but also help to predict pathways of future deterioration. This enhances understanding of potential pollution and fishing hazards and addresses UCH management needs.

In ongoing work (Gregory et al., 2024) baseline post-depositional site formation processes for more than 500 shipwreck sites, located in the North and Baltic Seas, are being examined. Multi-beam bathymetry data supplied by a marine survey company (JD-Contractor A/S) are integrated with multiple environmental and anthropogenic influence data layers sourced from open-data portals. A revised form of Muckelroy’s (1977) approach was used to achieve an initial manual classification of the sites and subsequently, statistical correlation analysis was used to determine the most significant variables. Fishing activity was assessed through inclusion of variables representing fishing efforts and only the fishing methods entailing direct contact of the fishing gear with the seabed were deemed to be relevant in this study. EMODnet (2022) provides a variety of quantified fishing activities in the Baltic and North Seas and bottom seiner, beam and otter trawler fishing data were downloaded from the EMODnet portal, representing fishing intensities averaged across three years (Fig. 7.1). However, some caution is required as there is on-going research into the footprint and actual impact of fishing on seabed habitats that may allow further refinement of this methodology (McConnaughey et al., 2020).

Fig. 7.1
4 spatial maps of Baltic and North Seas. a, bottom beam trawling with fishing effort at 0 to the south. b, bottom otter trawls with fishing effort at 0 across the sea. There are patches for higher efforts located centrally. c, bottom seines with efforts at 0 to the northwest. d, bottom fishing total with effort at 0 across.

Fishing intensities. (a) Bottom beam trawling, (b) bottom otter trawling, (c) bottom seines, (d) total bottom fishing intensity. Grey areas represent lack of data. (Figure from Gregory et al. (2024) prepared by Jan Majcher)

Full size image

Although the study presents a simplified, preliminary approach, it serves as a big-data-driven attempt to assess the predominant basin-scale post-depositional site formation factors acting at UCH sites in order to enable strategic, evidence-based management decisions to be made. Water depth, bottom fishing intensity and oceanographic variables like salinity have significant influence in addition to the expected correlation between the age of a wreck site (sinking date) and its current preservation state. These aspects are being further developed in the ENDURE project addressing the following key knowledge gaps: (1) the efficacy and long term sustainability of ‘in situ preservation’; (2) what to preserve and why; (3) a comprehensive understanding of decay processes (including their rates) and how and in what circumstances these can be mitigated for; (4) the invisible and inaccessible nature of these sites and how such a large resource can be effectively monitored; (5) the increasingly dynamic and changing nature of the marine environment due to both natural and anthropogenic drivers; and (6) the lack of integration of UCH management with other disciplines and end users of the marine environment.

7.3 The World’s Most Dangerous Industry

The damage caused to UCH by trawling activity cannot be ignored by responsible Government agencies and Lloyd’s Register FoundationFootnote 2 (LRF) is committed to supporting the safe and effective management of UCH. However, LRF believes that attempts to develop better management regimes for UCH located on or near fishing grounds must be informed by a high-level of awareness of challenges faced by the fishing community—especially in the global south. Accordingly, LRF Heritage Education Centre, has launched the Learning from the Past programme (LRF n.d.-a). The aim is to use historical and archaeological evidence to generate insights that contribute to contemporary fisher safety while also helping archaeologists and historians to communicate with fishers and policy makers in order to enhance efforts to limit harm to both the natural and historic marine environments.

Illegal fishing, climate change, weak governance, poverty and reduced fish stocks all contribute to make fishing one of the world’s most dangerous professions. Recent work by the FISH Safety Foundation indicates that more than 100,000 fishing-related fatalities occur annually with the majority in the developing world (Willis et al., 2023; FISH Safety Foundation, 2023). Negative health effects on industry participants in general and fatalities greatly exceed those in the wider shipping sector (S&P Global, 2020). In Bangladesh, more than 1350 fishers die at sea every year, often in boats lacking the most basic safety equipment and these losses can result in profound hardship for families and communities (FISH Safety Foundation, 2023).

Lloyd’s Register Foundation identified fishing as a safety challenge in its highly influential Insight Report on Safety in the Fishing Industry (Attwood, 2018). Since then, the Foundation has further investigated to better understand the nature of the safety challenge in the fishing industry. It has drawn on expert knowledge and opinion to understand what activity is already underway to improve fishing safety and what additional action is needed. Causes of fatalities differ in the developed and developing world. However, they are generally related to the economic status, value placed on life, and social outlook of the fishers in the respective countries. The report recommended that an international programme should be established, focused on local community partnerships, to improve safety in ways that are appropriate for local communities. LRF believes that this community approach is a critical element of managing fishery impacts on UCH. LRF has subsequently launched several initiatives, such as FishSafe2025, to help assure fisher safety through training and awareness (LRF, 2020). The Foundation has also supported development of new safety technology—for example SeaWise®, a tablet-sized device that monitors the stability of smaller fishing vessels (LRF, 2021). These outputs contain many insights that may be valuable in designing new UCH management regimes—especially in inshore waters.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and latterly, Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), will be a key tool in both marine nature and heritage conservation. However, the resulting displacement of fishers from familiar grounds, whether through creation of MPAs or other processes, can carry a severe cost that must be recognised and addressed in planning stages. The LRF funded film Two Kinds of Water tells the story of fishers in Africa’s most vulnerable fishing communities (LRF, 2022). Displaced from their traditional fishing grounds into stormier waters, fishers are forced to venture further and stay at sea longer in poorly adapted vessels. The need to operate further from land also results in loss of access to mobile telecommunication networks—previously the prime source of weather and other safety information as well as contact with the shore. Larger, mechanised fishing vessels, also moving from regular fishing grounds due to reduction and migration of fish-stocks due to overfishing, now compete with artisanal fishers for fish and sea-space. They pose a direct safety threat to the more fragile, smaller craft and mortality rates are rising as catches fall.

This is not a problem confined to the Global South. Fishing communities around the UK face disruption and displacement. Fishers have been moved from traditional shore facilities due to redevelopment causing operational and occupational safety issues. The UK Government plans for new HPMAs may also deny fishers access to traditional inshore grounds (DEFRA, 2019). UK sea fisheries associations have warned of a looming displacement crisis with increased risk and lasting harm to coastal communities (National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, 2022).

There have been extensive consultations on proposed HPMAs off the English coast and eventually two of the proposed designations (Lindisfarne and Inner Silver Pit South) were refused. The needs of fishing communities were prominent in the published rationale for rejection (DEFRA, 2019). For Lindisfarne, reasons included residents’ concerns about losing their heritage, community and cultural identity through losing fishing and also their health and safety concerns, including mental health. The Inner Silver Pit South designation was refused on the basis that the relatively high costs to fishers would not be offset by the potential benefits from its designation as a HPMA.

A similar pattern has emerged in Scotland (in which, like in England, relevant powers are devolved to the Scottish Parliament). The initial announcements by Scottish Ministers included commitments to designate at least 10% of Scotland’s seas as Highly Protected Marine Areas by 2026 (Scottish Government, 2022). However, there was an immediate backlash that united coastal communities, grassroots campaigners and sectors of the fishing industry—even spawning a popular protest song (SKIPINNISH, 2023). Former Finance Secretary Kate Forbes warned people, not wildlife, could become the ‘endangered species’ in Highland and Island areas due to jobs being lost as a result of the proposals. The strength of the opposition has resulted in withdrawal of the initial timetable for creation of HPMAs and the First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, stated that no HPMAs would be imposed on island and coastal communities without their consent (HPMAs, 2023).

7.4 Protecting England’s Maritime Heritage and Fishing Community Engagement

Fishing in English waters, using both mobile and static gear, involves a variety of complex interactions with underwater cultural heritage. Fishing has given rise to important heritage both underwater and along our coastlines, but fishing can also cause damage to UCH. Fishing is often a source of information about UCH—in the form of new discoveries—even where those discoveries are a consequence of fishing impacts.

Historic England (HE) is the government’s advisor on the historic environment in England, including in the UK Marine Area (UKMA) off England,Footnote 3 encompassing the territorial sea to 12 nautical miles (nm), and the UK Continental Shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone to median lines with neighbouring countries or to the boundary of national jurisdiction (200 nm) in the southwest. HE’s capacity to designate sites under heritage legislation is limited to the territorial sea but HE advises government on a range of other powers relating to resource use, the environment and fishing that apply to the full extent of national jurisdiction. For fisheries management, another key boundary lies at six nautical miles, which is the outer limit of areas administered by Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs). Beyond six nautical miles, fisheries management was subject to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union (EU). Since the UK left the EU, fisheries off England beyond six nautical miles are now administered by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), one of the family of public bodies sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

HE, including through its precursor English Heritage, has been engaging with fisheries for many years. It commissioned a wide-ranging examination of fishing and the historic environment that encompassed the contribution of fishing to the historic environment as well as direct and indirect interactions, both positive and negative (Firth et al., 2013). The report spurred further investigations and continues to provide evidence to support advice to government.

In 2012–2013, HE funded a pilot project to encourage fishers to report their discoveries of UCH through a Fishing Industry Protocol for Archaeological Discoveries (FIPAD) (Davidson, 2013). FIPAD was further developed with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Sussex IFCA in 2016–2018.Footnote 4

At an earlier juncture—in the 1990s—‘fishermen’s fasteners’ were among the core data recorded in a national inventory now known as the National Marine Heritage Record. Fasteners are places where fishers have noted snags to their gear which, in several cases, proved to be historic wrecks. Whilst fasteners indicate potential UCH, their actual character is unknown. This, and several other ambiguities, prompted a project led by Sussex IFCA to better understand fasteners and their heritage implications, including testing whether the survey methods used by IFCAs for fisheries and habitat mapping could also be used to examine fasteners. The project, which incorporated dialogue and joint fieldwork with fishers, confirmed the continued importance of fishermen’s fasteners as a source of information (Firth & Dapling, 2020). The project also flagged the safety issues presented by cultural heritage to fishing insofar as some fishing vessels, and fishers’ lives, have been lost from snagging obstructions and other historic material such as ordnance (Marine Accident Investigation Branch, 2015; Marine Accident Investigation Branch, 2022). The potential for IFCAs to use habitat survey methods to examine UCH was further explored in a project led by Isles of Scilly IFCA with the University of Plymouth (Firth et al., 2020).

Notwithstanding these positive instances of collaboration, fishing is still a cause of impacts to UCH, including to highly significant historic wrecks designated under heritage legislation. Several instances of documented damage are currently being investigated as heritage crimes and in other instances fieldwork has been commissioned to remove Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) that is obscuring designated sites and presenting a hazard to licensed divers. Whilst damage is a criminal offence, fishing as an activity is not restricted on these sites. Consequently, and in addition to pursuing criminal damage, HE efforts are twofold: working with the fishing sector to discourage the use of potentially damaging methods in the vicinity of important sites; whilst also exploring the use of fisheries management measures to formally restrict fishing.

New fisheries legislation, the Fisheries Act 2020, was introduced to accompany the UK leaving the EU and encompasses ‘features of archaeological or historic interest’ within the scope of the marine and aquatic environment that can be conserved, enhanced, and restored through financial assistance, regulations, or conditions on sea fishing licences. It was confirmed by the Minister in Parliament that regulations for conservation purposes may be used to amend or introduce legislation to protect features of archaeological or historic interest individually or collectively (Fisheries Bill [Lords], 2020, column 144).

Exclusion of fishing activity from limited areas around specific heritage sites is a residual option if the risk of impact cannot be reduced through other means, but it is not the starting point. As noted earlier, fishing is a valued part of our heritage, contributing to the character and sense of place of coastal communities, including people who work in them or visit. Often, UCH is itself the heritage of fishing generally but also of the fishers themselves: numerous fishing vessels lie wrecked in English waters, not least from the First and Second World Wars when fishing vessels and fishing crews served in the hazardous role of minesweeping. HE has supported the contribution of fishing heritage to regeneration of coastal communities through Heritage Action Zones (HAZs) and High Street Action Zones (HAZs). Examples of this include the ‘Kasbah’ at the heart of Grimsby’s historic fishing industry (Historic England, n.d.), and the Whapload Road area of North Lowestoft (Bristow, 2019). HE is carrying out a thematic assessment of heritage relating to steam fishing, encompassing heritage assets on land and at sea.

HE continues to explore how heritage contributes to the sustainability of fishing, reducing impacts to UCH but potentially contributing to the wider sustainability of our continued use and enjoyment of our seas. HE is supporting and co-supervising a PhD on using cultural heritage proactively to help manage UK marine fisheries in conjunction with Heriot Watt University and the University of Exeter as part of the Centre for Doctoral Training in in Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources (CDT SuMMeR). The research will examine how the legacy of cultural heritage embedded in the practice of small-scale fishing—traditional ecological knowledge, maritime landscapes, historic landing places, traditional vessels, and all their associated skills and material culture—can be used to drive greater sustainability within fisheries management.

Historic England continues to engage with DEFRA and the MMO on major changes to fisheries management introduced by the Fisheries Act 2020. The new Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS)—which sets out the overall direction of fisheries management across the UK –acknowledges that the seafood sector is an important part of the economy of coastal communities and has a rich cultural heritage from which many of those communities draw a sense of place and identity (DEFRA et al., 2022). There is work to do, however, on detailing how this rich cultural heritage is to be conserved and enhanced through the JFS. Historic England is engaged on the practical implications of the Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) that support the JFS through binding obligations and identified measures for dealing with individual fish stocks, types of fishing and geographic areas (DEFRA et al., 2023). The introduction and implementation of FMPs provides a key opportunity to flag the impacts of specific fisheries and how they can be reduced, but also the positive contribution that heritage can make to the long-term sustainability of fishing and coastal communities.

7.5 Conclusion

There is undoubtedly an urgent need for greatly improved protection of UCH from certain fishing gear impacts. However, this challenge, nested as it is within multiple, broader ocean stewardship issues, is not set to become any less complex—possibly quite the reverse.

The pace and scope of growth in the ocean-based economy has led to realisation that we are on the verge of a new maritime industrial revolution without an adequate governance framework or sufficient information to ensure that safety and sustainability can be assured. The notion of the Blue Economy is well established. Ocean industries underpin our critical infrastructures and supply chains—80% of our goods are transported by ship and it is estimated that $90 trillion will be invested over the next decade on marine infrastructure alone. Oceans contribute $1.5 trillion annually to the global economy, and this number is expected to double to $3 trillion by 2030 (LRF, 2021). The UN estimates that the ocean directly supports the livelihood of about 500 million people and many poorer countries are almost wholly dependent on the ocean economy. As the global population is estimated to grow to 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050, there will be increased pressure on ocean resources such as increasing demand for food, energy, jobs, transportation, and coastal land.

There is a broad acceptance that the Blue Economy must be a sustainable one. A just transition to a low carbon, sustainable ocean economy necessitates investment, education, infrastructure, innovation, and decent, safe jobs. But the capacity to industrialise is growing ever more rapidly. Marine ecosystems face unprecedented cumulative pressures from human activities and climate change. This is happening in a largely unmapped geography and a complex and uncertain governance landscape—a phenomenon dubbed the ‘Blue Acceleration’ (Jouffray et al., 2020). Put simply, the ocean has never been busier: shipping has increased by 1600% since 1982, when the UN Law of the Sea Convention was signed and a phenomenal rate of change over the last 50 years has produced a race among diverse and often competing interests for ocean food, material, and space.

Marine systems are becoming increasingly complex and safe management of shared space at sea is becoming a central topic of concern. Current management effort is necessarily focused on actions within territorial jurisdictions. However, there is increasing interest in management regimes for resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction as competition for these resources escalates (United Nations, 2023). These areas comprise 95% of the ocean and UCH is widely present within them, in both tangible and intangible form. For example, alongside individual wreck sites of varying antiquity, The Middle Passage, a maritime heritage landscape in the Atlantic Basin of immense significance to the African diasporic cultural memory, is potentially vulnerable to industrial activity such as mineral extraction being considered for licensing by the International Seabed Authority (Turner et al., 2020).

There is a time-limited conjunction of threat and opportunity. Never has UCH been under greater threat from industrial activity and fishing activities. Equally, there has never been a better opportunity to define and promote the standard and protocols required to deal with these threats and safety challenges and to communicate them as part of broader, international efforts to create a safe and sustainable ocean economy. As described in the preface of this volume, The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) was launched with the vision ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’.Footnote 5

The critical role of maritime heritage in achieving this outcome was recognised early, with the Cultural Heritage Framework Programme (CHFP), led by the Ocean Decade Heritage Network (ODHN), being among the first of the ‘Actions’ to receive formal UN Decade endorsement. The CHFP offers an efficient interface between heritage and the Ocean Decade, providing advice and assistance to other programmes, projects and activities in key areas.Footnote 6

It is essential to use this channel to foster ongoing dialogue with the broader ocean sustainability community based on an evidence-led approach to the actual nature and scale of impacts created by different types of fishing gear in different locations. Fishing is also an inherently hazardous occupation and any approach that fails to address impact on occupational safety will founder. The built heritage associated with coastal fisheries is increasingly recognised for its contribution to a ‘sense of place valued by the broader community’ (Khakzad & Griffith, 2016) as are the embedded intangible cultural heritage values widely noted in consultations and programmes supporting the regional socio-economic role of fisheries.Footnote 7 Heritage agencies have worked successfully with fishing communities to explore collaborative management approaches. Indeed, examples exist of fishing communities recruited and trained specifically to assist with monitoring and conservation of UCH. However, much more effort is needed to develop ways to balance the needs of fishers with preservation of nature and heritage. Lloyd’s Register Foundation will continue to support such efforts (LRF, n.d.-b).