Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust

MAST is a registered UK charity. It is considered to be the foremost maritime archaeological organisation in the UK, providing full-cycle maritime archaeological capability, from discovery, excavation and conservation to the museum door. MAST exists to fill a void in our understanding of our Nation's rich maritime heritage, to ensure that there is a sustainable future for such sites, through archaeology, research, study, conservation and dissemination. MAST, in 2024, saved for the Nation the most important collection of maritime heritage material known in the UK following the closure of Charlestown Shipwreck Museum. The collection will be made available through extensive visiting exhibitions to national museums once conserved. The MAST team combines high-level strategic management with experience unrivalled in the heritage sector in investigating and analysing threats to historic wrecks across the world's oceans with partners OceanMind, a not-for-profit organisation which specialises in monitoring of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing for governments and the private sector, to harness the growing capabilities of the space sector. Together we run the Maritime Observatory to protect global UCH from wholescale looting. The partnership represents a novel, holistic approach to the deterrence of illegal activity at sea to combine both monitoring and detection of illegal fishing activities and the looting of known shipwreck sites. Many such sites contain human remains and can also pose a danger to life and the ocean environment due to the presence of oil and/or unstable ordnance.