Underwater rescue

Dr Matt Carter is diving for the sake of seas in jeopardy from oil-leaching shipwrecks, writes CAITLIN SYKES.

- CAITLIN SYKES.

Chuuk Lagoon in Micronesia draws divers from around the world who, beneath warm, turquoise waters, marvel at the World War II shipwrecks scattered like ghosts across its floor.

Dr Matt Carter, however, is drawn to the lagoon and its wrecks for other reasons; for the Kiwi maritime archaeologist, it’s ground zero for his work leading one of the world’s largest and most challenging marine archaeological and conservation projects.

Melbourne-based Carter is research director of the Major Projects Foundation, a non-profit that’s tackling the threats posed to the environment and cultural heritage by oil-containing World War II wrecks as they slowly decay in the Pacific’s depths.

The foundation was formed in 2018 by Newcastle-based couple Paul and Wilma Adams after they witnessed oil leaking from wrecks during a diving trip to Chuuk Lagoon. Sensing the threat this posed to the environment and local communities, they turned their demolition company, the Major Projects Group, into a social enterprise that directs half its profits to the foundation.

“From World War II, there’s around 15,700 shipwrecks globally, and the work to manage many of these sites is undertaken quite frequently in places like the US and the Baltic States,” explains Carter.

“But our scope is the entire Pacific, where there are around 3800 of these wrecks. They’re scattered across the world’s largest ocean, which is home to smaller nations with limited resources to manage the threats the wrecks pose to the marine environment and their economies. That’s what makes the scale of this work so large and complex.”