Diving under the radar: divers and submerged aircraft

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recreational scuba diving has grown over the past six decades and interest in wreck diving has increased. This growth demands evidence-based management, and understanding diver behaviour is crucial to effective management. This paper presents the first formal study of diver behaviour on a particular class of underwater cultural heritage, World War II submerged aircraft at Chuuk Lagoon in the Federated States of Micronesia. Chuuk is a world-renowned dive tourism destination, providing divers access to an extensive collection of shipwrecks and a few submerged aircraft. Although it may be assumed that diver behaviour on shipwrecks and aircraft would be similar, this study identifies marked differences in diver behaviour between the two different types of wrecks. This may be due to their novelty or to their scale. The smaller and more human scale of aircraft may encourage tactile interaction, such as sitting in the cockpit. Restricted physical access increases the chances of accidental damage to the aircraft. The implication of these findings is that there are different needs for the management of shipwreck and aircraft diving, to protect both cultural heritage and dive tourism values of sites.