Marine forensics

It also refers to the scientific study and investigation of human incidents, accidents, or deaths occurring as a result of or involving bodies of water including oceans, streams or rivers, lakes, or ponds.

[2] Pollution from rapid industrialization and other human activities caused declination in fisheries resources and coral reefs have threatened marine life.

[7] Due to the complications in the process, a marine forensics scientist is required to have certain sets of skills such as the way to ask appropriate questions, how to work with uncooperative witnesses, and the understanding the specific goals of the company's incident investigation program.

[10] The faster an investigator gets to a scene and documents the surroundings, the more physical evidence will be preserved due to the environment being uncontrolled and constantly changing.

Unmanned aerial vehicles or drones have become a popular technology used for a variety of tasks in law enforcement as they are able to cover large amounts of terrain that are hard to access in short periods of time minimizing the need for a ground search.

[14] UAV's provide overhead surveillance which may reveal hidden terrain or debris where certain items could be hiding not visible to the human eye.

[14] Advancements in technology have been making it easier to locate remains in a marine environment through the use of thermal imaging, which creates pictures using heat/Infrared radiation by displaying various colors on a screen.

[14] Drones are being manufactured with thermal imaging to pair with the convenient overhead searching in order to detect any heat signature from the decomposition of a hidden body.

[13] Salinity refers to the amount of salt content in a body of water and cannot be overlooked in marine forensics as freshwater and saltwater have many differences in taphonomy and decomposition.

[19] In freshwater, currents won't move the evidence too far from where it first was, but they risk getting post-mortem injuries from waterfalls, rapids, and narrow banks (geography).

The longer an investigation is drawn out, the more potential there is for animals and sea life to create extensive changes to the evidence in question before it can be removed.

[8] Marine Accident Investigation Branch is an independent division of the United Kingdom's Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions(DTLR).