The Legal Status of Activities Affecting Underwater Cultural Heritage

Although much of the information derived from underwater remains is the result of activities whose primary object has not been the protection of underwater cultural heritage, UNESCO’s Convention on Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001), in principle, was not designed to address activities incidentally affecting underwater cultural heritage. Only article 5 of the Convention explicitly addresses this issue while these activities are implicitly referred to in several regulations. In maritime zones lying within 12 miles from the baseline, these activities are not subject to the provisions of the Convention and thus fall under the general provisions of the 1982 Convention. In those maritime zones beyond 12 miles, in practice, any activity may activate the reporting, notification and protection mechanisms of the treaty; there is no distinction between the types of state activities undertaken in these different maritime zones.