Mystic Aquarium

In 1997, IFE undertook its Skerki Bank Expedition in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The expedition surveyed, documented and sampled four ancient shipwrecks, including one dating to 100 B.C. and yielded important information about trading practices between ancient Carthage and Rome. Artifacts from the expedition can be found in IFE's "Challenge of the Deep". The expedition was the subject of an article in National Geographic magazine and was featured on National Geographic Television's Explorer program. A scientific manuscript about the Skerki Bank Expedition has been published in Deep Sea Research.

Isis - A Roman trading vessel was discovered in 1997. Nine hours of photo surveying were needed to reconstruct this wreck. Marine archaeology has primarily focused on shallow-water wrecks, which are accessible by SCUBA. Our reconstruction of trade routes based on these shallow-water sites, led us to believe that ancient mariners used only coastal routes. Ballard used his deep-water exploration techniques to look for wrecks in deeper water and found them. They are preserved in a much better state than shallow-water wrecks and so provide us with more information about the trade routes and the cultures that were trading around 300 AD in the Mediterranean.