---
title: "Maritime Archaeologist"
description: "Finds, documents and protects shipwrecks, sunken aircraft and submerged sites, often working as a scientific diver."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/maritime-archaeologist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Maritime Archaeologist

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-3091 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-3091.00

Finds, documents and protects shipwrecks, sunken aircraft and submerged sites, often working as a scientific diver.

Also advertised as: Underwater Archaeologist; Nautical Archaeologist; Marine Archaeologist; Shipwreck Archaeologist; Submerged Cultural Resources Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $70,770 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $34.02/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $49,050 to $108,060, with the middle half between $59,400 and $89,670
- **Total US employment:** 8,990
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 27/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 8,990 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $49,050 |
| 25th | $59,400 |
| 50th (median) | $70,770 |
| 75th | $89,670 |
| 90th | $108,060 |
| Mean (average) | $75,620 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $121,300 | $114,697 | 80 |
| NE | $94,520 | $104,902 | 40 |
| CT | $91,420 | $88,235 | Not published by BLS |
| AK | $89,810 | $87,740 | 130 |
| ID | $88,710 | $92,896 | 170 |
| OR | $84,970 | $82,207 | 240 |
| HI | $84,530 | $76,880 | 210 |
| VA | $80,230 | $79,354 | 320 |
| PA | $79,660 | $81,642 | 130 |
| MT | $79,420 | $83,914 | 80 |
| WY | $76,400 | $82,424 | 80 |
| AL | $75,690 | $85,214 | 170 |
| WA | $74,790 | $69,889 | 260 |
| UT | $73,920 | $74,769 | 120 |
| NC | $73,130 | $77,529 | 200 |

31 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 46 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/maritime-archaeologist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/maritime-archaeologist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 600 jobs, or +6.0%. Faster than average: 6.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 40.0% |
| Master's Degree | 30.0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 20.0% |
| Some College Courses | 5.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Search for submerged sites using sonar and magnetometers
- Dive to map, measure and photograph shipwrecks
- Build 3D site models using photogrammetry
- Survey seabeds before offshore construction and dredging
- Research ship records, charts and historical archives
- Coordinate conservation of waterlogged artifacts
- Write site reports and nominations for protected status

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- History and Archeology — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Foreign Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.84 |
| R — Realistic | 4.67 |
| A — Artistic | 4.64 |
| S — Social | 3.67 |
| C — Conventional | 3.19 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.63 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INTP | 86.7 |
| INTJ | 79.5 |
| INFP | 75.7 |
| ISTP | 74.7 |
| INFJ | 67.4 |

Best-fitting types: INTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Anthropologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anthropologist) — median $70,770
- [Historian](https://nuecareer.com/careers/historian) — median $76,750
- [Sociologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sociologist) — median $106,030
- [Anthropology and Archeology Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anthropology-and-archeology-teacher-postsecondary) — median $99,650
- [Geographer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geographer) — median $102,040
- [Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/area-ethnic-and-cultural-studies-teacher-postsecondary) — median $85,020
- [History Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/history-teacher-postsecondary) — median $83,820
- [Curator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/curator) — median $63,420
- [Archivist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/archivist) — median $64,550
- [Geoscientist, Except Hydrologists and Geographers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geoscientist) — median $101,920

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/maritime-archaeologist