Maritime archeology expedition to Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

by David Evans Shaw

In July 2025 I joined a maritime archeology expedition to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific Ocean to explore cultural heritage sites associated with epic World War Two battles of Guadalcanal. These battles marked a critical turning point in World War Two’s Pacific Theater as Allied forces successfully took the offensive against the Japanese Empire after the disastrous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor months earlier, in December 1941.

Our expedition was organized by the Ocean Exploration Trust founded by my friend and renowned archeologist Robert Ballard. Bob is a veteran of more than 150 deep sea expeditions. He is perhaps best known for his discoveries of high-profile shipwrecks such as the Titanic, the Bismark, PT-109, the Lusitania and the carrier Yorktown. He has contributed a great deal to marine science through other discoveries such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents and marine life. And he has been a pioneer in deep-sea submersibles.

My enthusiasm for joining this expedition stemmed from several interests.

Ocean exploration stands at a rare frontier of converging technologies including autonomous vehicles and robots, AI enabled smart sensing networks, data connectivity, and interdisciplinary innovation. The unprecedented power of these technologies is rapidly revealing secrets of the planet’s largest and least explored biome.

Exploration of this kind has been a lifelong passion for me via entrepreneurial science ventures, stewardship initiatives for the planet’s high seas and national parks, pioneering science such as mammalian genetics at The Jackson Laboratory, science policy leadership as Treasurer of the world largest general science society (AAAS), adventurous discovery through The Explorers Club, Shaw Fellows, MIT Media Lab, National Geographic Society, the US National Park Foundation, Second Century Stewardship, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Harvard’s Kennedy School, and others.

The importance of exploration to benefit global humanity has never been greater as we seek to deepen understanding of fragile ecosystems in our natural world. It’s an honor to share information about our expedition as an example of innovative, scientific exploration to benefit a more informed, and inspired world.

One of more than 300 press stories can be read here, on the Popular Science website.

My short film about the trip can be viewed here: