The purpose of our recent dives on Gribshunden was to establish a management and protection plan for the shipwreck that had been commissioned by the Blekinge County Council. Håkan Altrock, maritime archaeologist at the museum, explains below:
"To make it easier for an authority like the Coast Guard, the Maritime Police or the Navy to track changes on our wrecks, SMTM has developed a management and protection plan. It’s a report of a wreck site that has been found to be particularly vulnerable to looting or to human or natural disturbance, or a site that is especially sensitive to changes."
The management and protection plan contains a description of the ship’s history, the wreck itself and the history of the wreck site. It desribes the seabed environment, depicts the threat, and might include recommended measures for reducing the threat to the remains.
The most important part of the plan is a detailed description of the wreck site’s appearance at the time of writing the report. A 3D model or sketch is produced that plots any especially noteworthy objects. Objects of particular interest to looters, and objects or areas that readily indicate a change, are carefully photographed and marked on a sketch or 3D model. The direction from which the photo was taken is also marked with arrows. These points constitute photo stations that can be searched and photographed from the same angle by the divers from the different government authorities. By then comparing these newly taken images with the images from the management and protection plan, changes that have occurred between photographs can be detected.
"The wreck site was heavily overgrown, but not nearly as densely vegetated as last autumn when we dived on Gribshunden. It’s hard to say whether anything exciting has happened, since the wreck site was fairly new to us. There will probably be more to say the next time we or someone else like the coast guard dive on the site, thanks to the management and protection plan, which from now on serves as a kind of key – a starting point for monitoring and protecting Gribshunden in the future".
