Reefs, rigs, and wrecks: The 2009 field season of deep-water archaeology in the Gulf of Mexico

In the summer of 2008, the U.S. government contracted a four-year study of deepwater corals, natural reefs, and artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. The study focuses primarily on the cold-water coral Lophelia, but includes a significant shipwreck component. Shipwrecks in the central Gulf of Mexico provide a hard substrate for reef development in an area of otherwise mostly soft silty sediments. Historic shipwrecks (over 50 years old) not only serve as artificial reefs, but are also an intricate part of our cultural heritage. Marine archaeologists from C & C Technologies (C & C), the PAST Foundation, and the University of West Florida joined with biologists, geophysicists, oceanographers, and other ocean scientists to investigate five deep-water shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico in September 2009. This was the second field season of the study, which is sponsored by the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (NOAA OER), and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). The field investigations utilized the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), Jason II, onboard NOAA's flagship R/V Ronald H. Brown. Jason II is a sophisticated ROV by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and is specifically designed for scientific research. The sites ranged in depth from 530 meters to 2,250 meters. This paper focuses on the archaeological and historical nature of the shipwreck component of the study.