Atlas of Shipwrecks in Inner Ionian Sea (Greece): A Remote Sensing Approach

Maria Geraga,Elias Fakiris,Sofia Kekebanou,Dimitrios Eleftherakis,Xenophon Dimas,George Papatheodorou,Despina Zoura,George Ferentinos,Michalis Prevenios,Makis Sotiropoulos,Margarita Iatrou,Stavroula Kordella,Dimitris Christodoulou,Nikos Georgiou

doi:10.3390/heritage3040067

Abstract

Underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites constitute an important part of the overall cultural heritage both nationally and globally as they carry cultural, environmental, scientific, technological, political, economic and social viewpoints. UCH includes not only submerged sites and buildings, but also vessels and aircrafts. The Inner Ionian Sea in Greece is a place rich in a significant number of shipwrecks with a timespan ranging from ancient times right through to the 20th century. The results herein present the study of ancient, World War I (WWI), World War II (WWII) and more recent shipwrecks in the inner Ionian Sea. A total of 11 out of 36 known shipwrecks in the area have been systematically studied using marine remote sensing and ground truthing techniques. The marine remote sensing sensors include: side scan sonars, sub-bottom profilers and multi-beam echo-sounders. At each wreck site, the condition of the wreck, the debris field and man-made activities were determined based mainly on acoustic data. The history of each wreck is also briefly documented. The conclusion of the current research work is that there is an immediate need for a shipwreck protection framework in the Inner Ionian Sea; wrecks included in this work are a highly important part of UCH and man-made activities (e.g., fishing) threaten their integrity.

Highlights

Over the past decades coastal waters, seas and oceans have been subjected to stress from human pressures leading to increasing environmental degradation
Wrecks Surveyed by the Laboratory of Marine Geology and Physical Oceanography (LMGPO)
A total of 11 out of the 36 wrecks in total were surveyed by LMGPO using various acoustic systems

Summary

Introduction

Over the past decades coastal waters, seas and oceans have been subjected to stress from human pressures leading to increasing environmental degradation. Climatic change [1], the sea level rise, variable types of marine pollution, the growing demand for resources exploitation (i.e., overfishing [2], aquaculture, oil and natural gas exploitation [3], etc.), intensive ship traffic and land use at the coasts have forced Global and European agencies and organizations towards the development of strategies for sustainable ocean management (e.g., [4]). Such an example is Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), a planning process that defines the spatial distribution of human uses in the ocean and identifies and resolves conflicts among competing uses of ocean space as well as conflicts between human uses and the natural marine environment [5]. The Inner Ionian Sea has been studied in terms of MSP in the framework of the SUPREME (Supporting Maritime Spatial Planning in the Eastern Mediterranean) EU (European Union) project [12,13]

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Conclusion