Port cheers U.S. marine sanctuary designation

Federal shipwreck preserve seen as a boon for city, region by officials who have worked on project for more than a decade

THE WISCONSIN SHIPWRECK COAST National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 36 known shipwrecks, including the Northerner, which is resting in about 140 feet of water near Port Washington. The two-masted schooner filled with water and capsized southeast of Port Washington while being towed to Milwaukee on Nov. 29, 1868. Photo by Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society
By 
KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff

The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which will cover 962 square miles from Port Washington north to the Kewaunee County line, is all but final.

That news, announced Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was hailed by area officials for its potential to benefit everything from education to tourism to historical preservation.

“This is beyond exciting,” former Port Washington Mayor Tom Mlada, a longtime supporter of the sanctuary, said. “This is a moment for celebration. It has the potential to be one of those things you look back at in the future and say, ‘This really changed everything.’”

Bill Moren, a member of the Port Washington Historical Society who has been working with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, called the news “splendid.”

“I think there will be an economic impact, an increase in tourism,” he said. “I certainly see more visitors to the city, without a doubt. For the Historical Society, there are opportunities for new exhibits and growth.

“There’s an educational component I think the schools will latch onto. It will provide an added layer of protection for the existing shipwrecks. And I think there’s opportunities to discover new shipwrecks with all that will be going on.”

Tamara Thomsen, a marine archeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, said the designation will bring much needed resources to the state.

“It’s so exciting to have a guaranteed partner in NOAA,” she said. “We struggle to find resources. There are 750 known shipwrecks in state waters, and there are two of us doing this work.” 

The shipwrecks, Thomsen said, “tell the story of settlement and immigration and exportation of our resources. It tells the story of Wisconsin in its formative days, the story of ship-building in the state.”

The shipwrecks in the sanctuary date as far back as the mid-1800s and as recently as the Linda E., the last fishing tug out of Port Washington. The tug left the harbor on Dec. 11, 1998, with three men on board and was discovered on the lakebed south of Port on June 18, 2000. The boat had been run over by the integrated tug Michigan and barge Great Lakes. 

This isn’t the final approval needed for the sanctuary. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published the final rule for the sanctuary Wednesday, and the designation will take effect after Gov. Tony Evers and Congress have a review period over a 45-day continuous session of Congress.

Neither the governor nor Congress needs to act on the rule for the designation to become final.

But even though the designation isn’t yet final, the news is being cheered by officials who have been working for a sanctuary for more than a decade.

It was 2009 when City of Port Washington officials first began openly talking about the possibility of a marine sanctuary along the western coast of Lake Michigan.

In 2014, the State of Wisconsin submitted a community nomination for the sanctuary, and a year later President Barack Obama announced that NOAA was beginning the nomination process.

But in March 2018, Gov. Scott Walker abruptly withdrew the application for the sanctuary at a time when the sanctuary was believed to be just months from approval by the federal government.

The following November, Evers announced he was reinstating the application, a move hailed by officials, but there has been little public news of the sanctuary since that time — until Tuesday.

“It feels a little bit like we’ve run a marathon,” Kathy Tank, executive director of the Port Washington Tourism Council, said.  “This is just awesome. This will definitely increase our profile on the state and national level. We’re one of 15 sanctuaries, and one of two on the Great Lakes. It will draw focus from a wide variety of visitors, and we’re going to be getting a lot of attention from people on a scientific level.”

She noted that the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center on Lake Huron in Alpena, Mich., has spurred a significant amount of economic activity there.

The sanctuary will also help bring the history of Lake Michigan to life, and that will give people a personal connection to the lake, giving them a stake in its preservation.

“This is part of our state history that isn’t really taught and people don’t know about,” Tank said.

The sanctuary will honor the men and women who sailed the Great Lakes in the state’s early days, Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke said, and it also is an example of how the lakeshore communities can work together to preserve history.

There have been a few changes to the sanctuary since it was first considered, Russ Green, Great Lakes regional coordinator for NOAA, said.

The sanctuary, which was once envisioned running from the south end of Ozaukee County north to Algoma, will now run from the wreck of the Northerner just south of Port to the wreck of the America on the Manitowoc-Kewaunee line, about 82 miles, Green said.

Within that area there are 36 known shipwrecks and about 60 suspected wrecks, and many of them are largely intact, according to NOAA. 

Instead of using the high water mark to designate the western boundary of the sanctuary, the low water datum will be used, he said. On the east side, the sanctuary will extend between seven and 16 miles from shore.

And a prohibition on anchoring on the wrecks will be enforced, but not until October 2023, Green said, giving NOAA time to develop a mooring program and install mooring buoys. The buoys will likely be installed on wrecks that are in recreational diving range first.

“I hope we can get a few in the water next summer,” he said.

NOAA, Green said, has been active in the area even as the designation announcement has been pending. A NOAA team is in Sheboygan now working to map the lakebed there and will move to other communities this summer.

Once the sanctuary designation is formalized, Green said, there is still much work to do.

An advisory council consisting of 15 members with 15 alternates will be established, he said, with members including local government officials, tourism representatives and those interested in maritime heritage. Green said nominations for these positions will likely be taken this fall.

The council will hire a sanctuary superintendent and work to implement the management plan, which Green called the roadmap for the sanctuary. Among the decisions to be made is how to create a presence in each of the four major communities along the sanctuary’s boundaries — Port, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Two Rivers.

“It will help the sanctuary determine where we might place assets,” Green said, among them offices and perhaps a research vessel. While sanctuaries sometimes have one visitor center, officials have talked about having offices in each of the four communities.

“I can’t wait to get things going,” Green said. “We’re thrilled with Tuesday’s announcement. It’s great to get this designation.”

Mlada said, “Once the designation is official, the work begins and that’s the exciting part. It’s our time to make something special of this sanctuary designation.”

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