Our oceans, lakes, and rivers hold a rich archive of where we've been as a people. Anasazi ruins deep beneath the waters of Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona border . . . former rivers now submerged off the Florida coast, as old as the continent's first inhabitants who lived along their shores. . . the remains of sunken ships, airplanes, harbors, docks, and wharves from all eras of prehistory and history.

This heritage is fading fast, often subject to salvage that ignores the historical importance of sites and deterioration from marine organisms and natural processes. Federal agencies and their partners, particularly the states, are working to locate, document and preserve this underwater cultural heritage.

The idea of salvage--of rescuing and returning goods lost at sea to the stream of commerce--is as old as seafaring itself. Salvage makes sense when the goods are recently lost but it has been applied inappropriately to ships that were lost hundreds and thousands of years ago. Yet recent years have seen increased interest in and awareness of the historical and scientific importance of this underwater heritage. The Abandoned Shipwreck Act, and the Abandoned Shipwreck Act Guidelines set forth new federal government policy that historic shipwrecks represent an indispensable public legacy that should not be subject to salvage. Largely because of state initiatives, many sports divers, once avid collectors, have become preservationists. They want their children and grandchildren to experience the same thrill of seeing historic shipwrecks on the bottom of our rivers, lakes and seabed.

Today, new technology aids both researchers and salvors, but a number of national and international initiatives, including some fostered by the federal archeology program, promise hope for preservation.