Threats to Our Ocean Heritage: Potentially Polluting Wrecks

Dr. Michael L. Brennan received his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Geology from Bowdoin College in 2004 and his master’s and PhD in Maritime History and Geological Oceanography in 2008 and 2012, respectively, from the University of Rhode Island.  He has conducted both deep-water and shallow coastal remote sensing, autonomous vehicle and ROV-based survey and operations and is familiar with a wide array of survey technology and capabilities. He has worked around the world in locations including the Black Sea, Bikini Atoll, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Dr. Brennan’s research interests include World War II naval history, geoarchaeology, environmental monitoring of shipwrecks, and bottom trawl fishing damage to shipwreck sites. He worked as an expedition leader for Dr. Robert Ballard’s Nautilus exploration program for eight years and has significant experience coordinating telepresence-enabled expeditions, especially with archaeological focus. Since joining SEARCH in 2017, Dr. Brennan has authored and coauthored numerous maritime cultural resources survey reports, which has included data processing and target selection, as well as National Register of Historic Places nomination documents. Recently, Dr. Brennan was a co-principal investigator for the data recovery and structural assessment of the Clotilda wreck in the Mobile River, Alabama and led the environmental assessment of the river and shipwreck.Dr. Brennan has conducted site assessments of numerous Potentially Polluting Wreck sites, including serving as the archaeologist on site during the mitigation and oil removal operations at the wrecks of Coimbra in 2019 and Munger T. Ball in 2021. This work also includes ROV assessment of Coast Trader off the coast of Vancouver in 2016 and the discovery and ROV assessment of Bloody Marsh off South Carolina in 2021. He has also worked on numerous wrecks from Operation Crossroads, including those at Bikini Atoll as well as the wrecks of USS Independence and USS Nevada, sunk as targets off San Francisco and Hawaii following the nuclear tests in 1946.

“This publication is an essential and timely wake-up call for a global audience. It is definitely a must read for maritime archaeologists and heritage managers who are unfamiliar with the topic of PPWs and their multiple environmental, social and economic implications. … this edited publication on potentially polluting wrecks will become an extremely valuable reference and source of periodic consultation in a topic of unquestionable global importance.” (Dolores Elkin, Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Vol. 20 (1), 2025)

• Foreword (Mark J. Spalding).- 1. Potentially Polluting Wrecks: An Introduction (Michael L. Brennan).- 2. Potentially Polluting Wrecks and the Legal Duty to Protect Our Ocean Heritage (Mariano J. Aznar, Ole Varmer).- 3. Environmental Impact and Modeling of Petroleum Spills (Matt Horn, Deborah French-McCay, Dagmar Schmidt Etkin).- 4. Corrosion Processes of Steel-Hulled Potentially Polluting Wrecks (Robert Glover).- 5. From Desktop to Dive: Assessing the Pollution Potential of SS Fernstream, USNS Mission San Miguel and SS Coast Trader (James P. Delgado).- 6. Managing Potentially Polluting Wrecks in the United Kingdom (Polly Georgiana Hill, Matthew Skelhorn, Freya Goodsir).- 7. Polluting Wrecks in the Baltic Sea (Benedykt Hac).- 8. Potentially Polluting Wrecks in the Blue Pacific (Matthew Carter, Ashley Meredith, Augustine C. Kohler, Bradford Mori, Ranger Walter).- 9. Satellite Detection and the Discovery of Bloody Marsh (Michael L. Brennan, Geoffrey Thiemann, William Jeffery).- 10. Searching for a Lost PPW: SS William Rockefeller (John Detlie).- 11. Assessment Methodologies for Potentially Polluting Wrecks: The Need for a Common Approach (Mark Lawrence, Stuart Leather, Simon Burnay).- 12. Concluding Statement (Joao Sousa, Benjamin Ferrari, Michael L. Brennan, Ole Varmer).