RMS Titanic joins 2009 Great Lakes Underwater March 7

Contact:  Dave White, NY Sea Grant, 315-312-3042; Ken Vrana, 989-834-0007

OSWEGO, NY, February 27, 2009 – The RMS Titanic sank in 1912 and 97 years later people are fascinated not only by the ship and its story but by the modern technologies that documented and are now mapping the famous shipwreck. On March 7th at the 2009 Great Lakes Underwater Conference at SUNY Oswego, Kenneth J. Vrana, president of the Center for Maritime & Underwater Resource Management (CMURM) of St. Johns, MI, will present Mapping the Titanic. He will talk about the efforts of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. and its research partners to create a plan of the shipwreck site using a GIS (geographic information system).
 
Vrana says, “A GIS provides a powerful tool for information management, scientific analyses, and heritage education. RMS Titanic, Inc. led seven expeditions to the ship between 1987 and 2004 and we are now creating a detailed map of her resting place.”
 
Vrana will also provide an update on the “Dunkirk Schooner” project, a cooperative effort to identify an early 19th century sailing vessel discovered in the eastern basin of Lake Erie.
 
Also on the conference agenda:
… Noted shipwreck explorer Jim Kennard will make a trilogy presentation of “Deep Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario,” including a rare and recently discovered 200-year-old dagger-board schooner, and he will provide a short update and video on the discovery of the British war ship HMS Ontario that he and Dan Scoville located in Lake Ontario in May 2008.
 
… New York State Divers Association President James Sears will present “Two Tank Tips” for places to dive on two wrecks in close proximity.

… Janet Marsden of the Auburn Skin Divers Association will share interesting details about the underwater recovery work, teaching, special events, dive trips, invasive species removal and underwater clean-up projects of the club that is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2009.
 
… 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the USS Oneida, America’s first warship on the Great Lakes. Historian Gary Gibson will talk about the Civil War battles of sloop-of-war and what happened to her after the war.
 
… Coastal Tourism and Recreation Specialist Dave White of New York Sea Grant will present the latest updates on the New York State Underwater Blueway Trail and the Dive the Seaway Trail projects.

The Great Lakes Underwater conference will be held in the Campus Center Auditorium at SUNY Oswego. For more information, call New York Sea Grant at 315-312-3042 or go online to www.oswegomaritime.org/glu.html.

Great Lakes Underwater 2009 is hosted by New York Sea Grant and the Oswego Maritime Foundation and co-sponsored by Seaway Trail, Inc.