The first order of business in underwater archaeology, is to locate the sites. Search zones are narrowed through archival research or discussions with local residents who know the history of the area. Many "shipwrecks" are the result of derelicts sinking while moored and locations can often be accomplished with a short dive "near the old pilings." If these tactics don’t work, a group of divers can swim the area in line-abreast sweeps and the boats can scan the bottom with fishfinder sonar looking for large bumps on the bottom. When the search areas are larger, sidescan sonars are used to cover many square kilometers of search area per day. These searches use a torpedo-like sensor towed behind a boat to produce an acoustical image of the lake bed, in swaths up to 600 m wide. Sidescan sonars are expensive, require trained operators to interpret the images and can be easily damaged.

Once found, significant sites are mapped. Shallow water sites such as the steam tug Hosmer and the Nelson CPR wharves, were mapped with laser transits, which allow for rapid surveys of complex sites. Below 3m the standard underwater survey techniques of baseline or trilateration are used. These techniques involve measuring distances of artifacts from a line stretched down the centre of a wreck, or from a series of accurately mapped pins. Data are recorded on slates and the wreck is measured and sketched over the course of several dives. These techniques allow a site plan to be drawn, but accuracy of the final map depends on both the conditions on the wreck and the number of dives spent on the site. Whenever possible, photographs were taken of the site.

The project did not remove artifacts from the wrecks and there was no excavating. In some areas deposition of sand and silt have buried artifacts and possibly vessels.

Some vessels were buried in sand up to their decks and they may contain intact steam plants but confirmation will require excavation at a later date, under permit.