Australia and Pacific Island countries: The need to collaborate to protect underwater cultural heritage

Of the 60 States who have ratified the UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage to date, only three States in the Asia-Pacific Region have done so. The Convention is the international framework for working collaboratively to protect our shared underwater cultural heritage resource. This paper looks briefly at the three States in the Asia-Pacific Region who have ratified the Convention, the status of some Pacific Island States in regard to ratification of the Convention and in detail at the history of Australia’s consideration of ratification of the Convention. Further, the paper highlights global cultural and environmental threats to underwater cultural heritage and raises the need for immediate closer collaboration by all Pacific Island States and countries that border the Pacific to protect underwater cultural heritage regardless of their status of ratification.