Sarah Dromgoole, ed. The Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National Perspectives In Light of The UNESCO Convention 2001, 2nd ed. pp. 450. $176.00 Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006. ISBN 10: 90-04-15273-3; 13: 978-90-04-15273-1.

Until the last quarter of the twentieth century, few nations around the world felt compelled to protect historic shipwrecks and other underwater cultural heritage (UCH) from vandalism and exploitation. However, as long-lost shipwrecks became more accessible through the growing popularity of scuba diving and increasingly sophisticated underwater search and salvage technology, the need for such legislation became more apparent. Dromgoole's first edition of this book, Legal Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National and International Perspectives (The Hague: Kluwer, 1999), provided a much-needed look at how various nations were coming to grips with the problem through domestic legislation. In the first edition, 13 essays explored a wide variety of legislative schemes from as many nations. A final essay described the ongoing effort to create an international treaty to protect UCH in international waters.