Quantification of Bottom Trawl Damage to Ancient Shipwrecks: A Case Study from the Coastal Waters of Turkey

Abstract

Ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean region are particularly susceptible to damage by bottom trawl fishing activities because of their low relief on the seabed. Shipwrecks from the Greek and Roman periods typically consist of mounds of amphora cargoes, which slump onto the seabed in the shape of the vessel outline once the wooden hulls deteriorate following consumption by wood boring organisms. These low relief mounds do not snag trawl nets the way steel-hulled shipwrecks do in which fishers lose gear and could avoid those locations later. Instead, the fragile ceramic artefacts that comprise ancient wrecks are exposed to repeated strikes by trawls until they are broken and scattered across the seabed, potentially to the extent that they can no longer be found. Expeditions from 2008 through 2013 by Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) and the Exploration Vessel Nautilus documented numerous ancient shipwrecks in the Black and Aegean Sea coastal waters of Turkey that exhibited a range of damage from trawls, and which allowed for quantification of some of this damage.