Ocean scientists announce plans for Black Sea expeditions in 2007 (12/31/06)

Ocean scientists announce plans for Black Sea expeditions in 2007

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Ukrainian, American and leading ocean scientists from other countries will be returning to the Black Sea in 2007 to continue studying an assortment of ancient and recent ship wrecks preserved in its depths. They also plan to establish the first in a series of underwater museums that will be accessible to schools through a satellite hook-up as well as on the Internet.

Plans for the 2007 Ukrainian-American expedition were announced during a briefing at the National Geographic Society on December 11 by the chief scientists of the project, representatives of other sponsoring institutions and Ukrainian Ambassador Oleh Shamshur.

Describing the expedition, Robert Ballard, director of the Institute for Archeological Oceanography (IAO) at the University of Rhode Island, said the Black Sea is "the largest museum on Earth." The reason for that, he explained, is that beneath 200 meters, it is anoxic, and without oxygen there is nothing to destroy the ships and cargo that sank to its depths.

During the first expedition to the coastal regions off Crimea in 2006, the joint team identified close to 500 objects of interest on the sea bottom, among them a Byzantine ship from the late ninth or early 10th century, Russian and Soviet ships that went down in the first and second world wars, and more recent ships and aircraft, Dr. Ballard said.

His Ukrainian counterpart, Serhiy Voronov, director of Underwater Heritage of Ukraine and member of the Academy of Sciences, said the 2007 expedition will commence on January 15 and last until November, with the detailed examination of the old Byzantine ship starting in August.

He thanked his American partners for what he called their "truly effective cooperation," which for the first time is enabling Ukrainian scientists to explore sea depths from 100 to 2,000 meters.

The American project archeologist, Bridget Buxton of IAO, said they expect to find organic matter on the Byzantine ship - possibly honey, olive oil and even 1,000-year-old wine - which, after DNA analysis, may help them date other old ships found elsewhere.

"This is going to be better than Pompeii with respect to preservation," she said, referring to the Italian city buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Dr. Ballard said that the site will be excavated and made into a museum accessible via underwater vehicles controlled from land that will transmit video of the site via satellite and the Internet (www.immersionpresents.org). Some of the objects brought to the surface for conservation will be placed in a special museum somewhere in Crimea.

The project is international in scope, with scientists from other countries - Germany, Russia and Poland, among others - participating. It will rely on two main research vessels - a Ukrainian ship and one from NATO.

Ambassador Shamshur focused on this aspect in his remarks during the briefing: "To my mind, it would be a perfect example of the cooperation between Ukraine and NATO." He said that it should help in "telling the truth" about that alliance and change the public's perception about NATO in Ukraine, "so that we can count on that in our quest for membership in Euro-Atlantic structures, including membership in NATO."

He also noted that Ukraine recently ratified the UNESCO Underwater Heritage Convention and that this will serve as a good example of this kind of cooperation for the world.

Among the honored guests at the briefing was Ambassador Shamshur's wife, Tetiana Izhevska, who was recently named Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican.

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