Alicante puts Spain in Unesco’s largest underwater survey

Spain joined hands with Alicante, who participated in this international expedition through Casa Mediterráneo. Photographer Ángel Fitor specializing in underwater images. This is how Spain shares France, Italy, Croatia and Tunisia This investigation, the results of which will be announced on Thursday, The headquarters of UNESCO is in Paris.

“There are great hidden treasures, and Unesco is setting itself a goal. Declaring Skerki a World Heritage Site, “This means opening the door to other collaboration projects and Spain is already there,” says Andrés Perelló, managing director of Casa Mediterráneo. “We thought we should enter in order for Casa Mediterráneo and Alicante to present themselves as Mediterranean references.”

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in total $20,000 and Fitor’s intervention There were contributions from Spain for this project, which consists of two different parts. On the one hand, documenting the protection status, shipwrecks already registered as “of very high historical value” Discovered by Robert Ballard. I found the titanic. “In the 1990s, Ballard found three Roman wrecks in Sicilian waters at a depth of 800 meters, and what was done was to compare existing photographs with photographs from the time to see if there was any damage,” Fitor says.

On the other hand, Check out Skerki Bank to see what their funds are hiding. “The Mediterranean Sea was separated by this shore, forming two lakes, so there are some reefs there that are dangerous to navigation, and that’s why ships sank,” says Perelló. That and the amount of current and wind in the area.

These surveys were done With two remote control robotsIt has the ability to adapt to difficult-to-access geographical areas. robot arthur It was used to document sunken ships on the Italian continental shelf discovered by Ballard. This is how they collected new data with high resolution photos and videos This contributed to the identification and dating of the ships’ cargo.

On the Tunisian continental shelf, archaeologists funny robot verifying and documenting the objectives of the previously mapped area, and a versatile sonar To get more information about this unknown and dangerous area for navigation. First time Keith’s reef scannedPermitted document three new shipwrecks From ancient to modern times and other archaeological interests.

In this way, shipwrecks have been documented from the Phoenician period to World War II.

photos and exhibition

Ángel Fitor’s role in this adventure has been to document what is going on with pictures. at Alfred Merlin, the French science ship on which the project was developed. “I not only documented technical aspects, because the boat had cutting-edge resources, but also the human side of this unionalso in an international context that is most enriching at all levels ».

Photojournalist and underwater photography expert, about 6,000 photosthe one which… fifty will be exhibited on Thursday during the international presentation of the project at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. “It’s about showing the domestic and coexistence part of the ship, because the background images were made with these high-generation underwater robots.” The exhibition will be completed with projection of a documentary, It was filmed by a team of filmmakers during an expedition.

Andrés Perelló hopes to be able to bring this work to Casa Mediterráneo so that it is known “as best I can”. For the director of this institution, “this mission is the first step of a lasting multilateral cooperative relationship in the Mediterranean.”