Kyla P Mora

Pacific Daily News

The second World War may be decades past, but what it left behind on the floors of the Pacific Ocean is still of great cultural significance and concern, particularly to maritime archaeologists.

On Saturday, 10 presenters took the stage at the Guam Museum Outdoor Theater to discuss World War II underwater cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific region, as part of the museum's ongoing monthly series of HITA talks.

The all-day seminar brought together experts from Guam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Palau, Japan, Australia and California to discuss conservation and management issues involved in excavating and preserving underwater cultural heritage sites.

Such sites include wrecked ships and aircraft from the war, but also sunken villages, fish traps and cultural sites. Maritime archaeologists also examine coastal and land sites involved in living and working by the sea.

According to the presenters, approximately 4,000 shipwrecks and thousands of wrecked aircraft litter the floor of the Pacific. Many are subject to tourist divers and treasure hunters.

Panelists discussed issues such as laws restricting or allowing treasure hunters to investigate wrecks, and the challenges such laws pose to conservation.

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In Chuuk, unregulated diving often claimed lives, University of Guam associate professor William Jeffery said.

Though he said it is less common now, in the past divers who found explosives or bombs in wrecked ships could be hurt or killed when they brought them back to surface. Occasionally, after salvaging explosives, divers would then use them to fish or throw them back onto the ships, which stripped coral and damaged reefs, Jeffery said.

However, maritime archaeology is not just about physical damage to divers or sites, panelists pointed out. Often, the field is concerned with the significance of sites to fishing, sailing, and cultural practices.

"These sites aren't just about particular historical heritage for some groups, some people. It's a dialogue as well, and that's what I see valuable in the sites," field school student and panel participant Mikhael Phelps said.

Phelps is currently producing a report on work done on a junkyard in Apra Harbor, where machinery and equipment was dumped for years.

"To see how that area was altered by human beings, the cultural landscape, to see the devastation as well as the benefits in the way the reef was able to build itself on there, and to see the historical parts of that -- it hurts, but it also creates that dialogue," Phelps said.

Reporter Kyla Mora covers Guam's business community, economy, tourism, public health, and anything else that catches her interest. Follow her on Twitter @kylapmora. Follow Pacific Daily News on Facebook/GuamPDN and Instagram @guampdn.