James Delgado, Ph.D. is among the world’s leading experts in maritime archaeology and cultural heritage. Dr. Delgado joined SEARCH in 2017 and serves as Senior Vice President. He is responsible for ensuring operational and research excellence, implementing strategic initiatives, and expanding the firm’s international footprint. Dr. Delgado also serves as a public speaker, international delegate, documentary host, and major project spokesperson. Prior to joining SEARCH, Dr. Delgado served as the Director of Maritime Heritage in the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries for NOAA for seven years, where he implemented heritage programs and active research in the nation’s waters, as well as promoted outreach and education on America’s underwater and marine heritage.

Previously, he served a four-year term as President and CEO of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the world’s leading scientific and educational organization dedicated to the understanding of humanity’s seafaring history through the excavation and scientific study of shipwrecks. Dr. Delgado was the Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum in British Columbia, Canada for 15 years, and he served as Maritime Historian and Head of the US government’s Maritime Heritage Program for the US National Park Service for four years in Washington, DC. Dr. Delgado also served as the first historian for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in the San Francisco Bay Area where he participated in the restoration and interpretation of Alcatraz.

Jim has written, co-authored or edited more than 33 books on archaeology and history, most recently The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History, which will be released on July 1.  Other titles include Clotilda: The History and Archaeology of the Last Slave Ship,  The Curse of the Somers: The Secret History behind the U.S. Navy’s Most Infamous Mutiny, War At Sea: A Shipwrecked History from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century (winner of the 2021 Deetz Award), Robert J. Walker: The History and Archaeology of a U.S. Coast Survey Steamship,  The Lost Submarines of Pearl Harbor: The Rediscovery and Archaeology of Japan’s Top-Secret Midget Submarines of World War II, The Maritime Landscape of the Isthmus of Panama,   Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns, and Pearls, Silent Killers: Submarines and Underwater Warfare, Nuclear Dawn: The Atomic Bomb from the Manhattan Project to the Cold War (winner of the 2011 Choice Award), Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet: In Search a Legendary Armada (winner of the 2011 Deetz Award), Gold Rush Port: The Maritime Archaeology of San Francisco’s Waterfront, Waterfront: An Illustrated Maritime Story of Greater Vancouver, Adventures of a Sea Hunter: In Search of Famous Shipwrecks, the Encyclopedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology, Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll, Pearl Harbor Recalled: New Images from the Day of Infamy, Great American Ships, To California by Sea: A Maritime History of the Gold Rush, and three books for children; Wrecks of American Warships, Native American Shipwrecks, and Shipwrecks of the Westward Movement.