User:SaveOntS

Save Ontario Shipwrecks (SOS)is Provincial Heritage Organization in Ontario, Canada dedicated to the study, preservation and promotion of the appreciation of Great Lakes marine heritage. Incorporated in 1981, SOS is a public charitable organization of dedicated volunteers from across the Province. SOS operates mainly through a group of local Chapter Committees which are supported by a Provincial Board of Directors and Provincial Executive Volunteers They undertake many worthwhile projects and activities.

Activities related to the study of Ontario's marine heritage include historical and archival research, oral histories, side scan surveys and underwater archaeological investigations. Through chapter sponsered projects, such as plaques, surveys, bouys and internationally recognized diver training through the Nautical Archeology Society (NAS). We not only help protect our dive sites, but spread the important word to many others. SOS believes in 'insitu' preservation of artifacts (ie: leaving them where found) for other to see any time as opposed to expensive preservation and then being hidden from the public in museam collection storage facilities.

Preservation activites undertaken by SOS members includes a mooring program which seeks to minimize anchour damage which are regularly being visited by sport divers. Along with the mooring programs, site monitoring and documentation activites help to record and preserve marine heritage sites. Presentations to scuba clubs and training courses highlight the need for all divers to use shipwreck sites responsibly - that is, to minimize the negative impact of their visit to these fragile underwater museums.

We promote an appreciation of Ontario's rich marine heritage through a number of initiavates. SOS members regularly make presentations to scuba training courses, public groups, and dive clubs. We design, produce and bring displays about marine heritage to underwater trade shows and conferences. We seek to work very closely with the diving tourism industry to ensure that the rapidly growing heritage tourism initiatives are unndertaken responsibly, from the standpoint of site preservation.

Ontario enjoys one of the finest marine heritage resources (about 10,000 wrecks)of any jurisdiction on the planet, and SOS lobbies all levels of government with a view to developing resource management initiatives which strike an appropiate balnce amongst the competing interests of study preservation and use.

Further, information about SOS can be gleaned from their website. [http.//www.saveontarioshipwrecks.on.ca]