Across the world’s oceans, UNESCO estimates that more than three million shipwrecks rest on
the seafloor. Yet this represents only a fraction of our underwater cultural heritage (UCH).
Lakes, rivers, estuaries, and inland waterways hold their own archives of human movement and
innovation. Beyond shipwrecks lie submerged airplanes, landscapes, settlements, and industrial
sites—a vast, largely unseen record of culture and the pathways people have traveled for
generations. These places offer powerful gateways for engaging people of all ages because they
naturally connect the humanities and the sciences. They embody the most advanced science,
engineering, technology, and problem solving of the past, while advancing innovative STEM
applications today. Whether someone is writing coding workflows that help process and interpret
data, piloting underwater robotics, identifying objects in underwater photos, building a virtual
dive in a game engine, or printing a scaled model of a wreck, these hands on experiences invite
people to interact directly with science and history and feel the spark of discovery. Yet it is the
shared human experience embedded in these sites— indelible histories of travel, adaptation,
ingenuity, and loss—that connects the past with the present and inspires the future. Drawing on
more than 30 years in education and maritime archaeology, Dr. Calvin Mires explores how
moving beyond shipwrecks expands the possibilities for public engagement. By reframing
underwater heritage as a living, interdisciplinary resource, we can spark curiosity across many
pursuits of knowledge and connect communities to the waterways around them.