Specifically, the project was initially developed to address issues identified in a recent condition report on the Rottnest Onshore Shipwreck Plaques (MAAWA, 2015), relating to existing interpretive signage on the island. As a consequence, MAAWA and RIA identified as a priority the need to update existing land-based shipwreck signage (currently over thirty years old) in order to address potential health and safety issues, to improve overall visitor experience, and to improve public accessibility to the Rottnest Island underwater shipwreck heritage.

The project represents a new stage in an on-going long-term program of site documentation, management and interpretation within the broad Perth region, initiated by MAAWA in 2014 under the aegis of the Three-Dimensional (3D) Maritime Archaeology Project – Perth Region (3DMAPRR, Edwards et al. 2016). The structure and nature of the project also allowed it to be connected to another MAAWA earlier initiative (2013), namely the ‘Shipwrecks WA’ website and app platform to expand the audience outreach.
]]>
As a senior member of the House Armed Services and Resources Committees, he was the ranking member for several subcommittees and panels. He emphasized the importance of Guam and the Asian Pacific Region in national strategic policy and secured the initial funding for the Guam National Guard Readiness Center. He ensured Guam’s inclusion in major legislation such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that brought domestic telephone rates to Pacific territories, the State Children Health Insurance Program and legislation which created the Department of Homeland Security. He passed major legislation for Guam that resolved long standing land disputes with the federal government, brought recognition to Guam’s World War II generation and their case for war claims and enhanced local autonomy (elected attorney general, magistrate bill).

Robert was born in Guam (1948) and educated in Guam and California. He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Guam (1965) and received a Bachelors (1969) and Masters Degree (1971) from Cal State University, Los Angeles. He holds a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Southern California. He has five children, two grandchildren and is married to former Guam Senator Nerissa Bretania Underwood, a prominent educator and former Superintendent of the Guam Department of Education.

As a teacher and Professor of Education at the University of Guam, he led the effort to include the Chamorro language and culture in the curriculum of Guam’s schools and enhance multicultural understanding. He was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Bilingual Education during President Carter’s administration. He also served as Chairman of the Chamorro Language Commission for over a decade and is widely acknowledged as a leading authority on cultural, educational and linguistic issues in Guam and Micronesia.

Since becoming President of the University, in 2008, he has helped reposition the University as the “natural choice” for thousands of young people in Guam and the Micronesian Region. He has significantly increased federal funding to the University and led a Good to Great (G2G) Initiative to build a great university for the region. He eagerly embraces the challenge of helping island communities take on issues related to change and building a sustainable future that continues our essence as islanders, protects our islands and oceans and builds strong societies and economies.]]>
and professional training, penalties, and supplementary provisions. This paper introduces the recent research projects of underwater cultural heritage in Taiwan, illustrates the enactment process of the new law and highlights its main features. The paper concludes that it is essential to have further integration of management affairs, establishing national research institute, strengthening the international cooperation and the professional training, implementing related bylaws and mechanisms, and promoting public awareness, which also become daunting challenges faced by Taiwan as it marches toward the protection of its precious underwater cultural heritage.]]> the Song Dynasty of China, stone anchor stocks composed of wooden shanks were generally used; their distributions ranged from the Primorsky region of Russia in the north to the south in Vietnam and the Philippines. In Korea and in Japan, crude stone anchor stocks modelled after Chinese anchors were widely used at that time. From the Takashima underwater site associated with the Mongolian invasion of Japan in the 13th century or during the early Yuan Dynasty, stone anchor stocks of separate type were frequently discovered. After the Ming Dynasty, iron grapnels started to be used in large, but at the same time wooden anchors were also kept in use on different styles from region to region. In Japan, iron four-armed grapnels were appeared in some art pictures after the Muromachi Period, and then during the Edo Period those grapnels became popular as the mainstream of Japanese anchors. The iron four-armed grapnel, which is considered to have belonged to the Sinan shipwreck, seems to have equipped on a Japanese vessel dated from the Edo period to early modern times as its characters are found among Japanese grapnels. However, the possibility that it still belonged to the Sinan shipwreck could not be denied completely, because the actual origin of Japanese grapnels is unknown; Chinese manufacturing technology of grapnels, which is known for the time being, was different from Japanese one, but another technology, which would have an impact upon both Japanese and the Sinan shipwreck’s grapnels, might have existed in China. ]]> archaeologists and the local professional divers can exchange their opinions. The goal of these activities is to ask professional divers of local communities help to monitor UCH after scientific evaluations led by archaeologists are completed. The Ohajima underwater site is located off the Coast of Kume Island in Okinawa. This site contains a dense distribution of medieval Chinese pottery. Public open-houses were experimentally organized twice for local communities. The Board of education from local communities (for instance, Kumejima Museum) and local diving communities were heavily involved and helped underwater archaeologists and the research team to organize this event.
After continuous attempts of public outreach, public awareness and interests for UCH among the local diving communities has increased. More divers have started visiting the sites. However, an increase in public awareness creates another concerns that it exposes the UCH sites into social media such as blogs by visitors, articles on diving magazines, and so on. Henceforth, the next challenge confronting the authors and the local communities regarding these sites are plans to properly monitor those sites and a proposal for a reliable long-term management plans. More importantly, these monitoring and management plans have to involve wide varieties and different type of local communities.]]>