Dr Matt Carter

Dr. Matt Carter is a marine archaeologist, ocean advocate, and technical diver. Since 2003, he has worked on underwater archaeological projects in 13 different countries, ranging from the excavation of a 2800-year-old Phoenician shipwreck in Spain, to leading expeditions to 3D model the ghost fleets of Bikini Atoll and Chuuk Lagoon. In 2009, Matt was awarded the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society’s (OWUSS) Australasian Rolex Scholarship, where he was introduced to using rebreathers for scientific diving. Since then, he has become a pioneer in the use of CCR and photogrammetry for marine archaeology, specialising in the surveying and assessment of WWII wrecks in Australia and the Pacific. Matt is an International Fellow and EC50 awardee of the Explorers Club, a former Vice-President of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA), and the New Zealand representative on the ICOMOS International Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage (ICUCH). He has also been a specialist presenter on the television series ‘Coast: New Zealand’, a spin-off from the BBC-produced UK series ‘Coast’, and is a subject matter expert for the United Nations, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and the Government of Australia. Combining scientific, commercial, and technical diving for over a decade, Matt now serves as the Research Director for the Major Projects Foundation, working to protect marine ecosystems, cultures, and livelihoods threatened by polluting WWII shipwrecks across the Blue Pacific.