Photo: The NYSG “Great Shipwrecks of New York’s Great Lakes” exhibit has traveled to the Great New York State Fair and to museums statewide since 2014. Credit: NYSG

Contacts:

Dave White, NYSG Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist, E: dgw9@cornell.edu, P:  (315) 312-3042

Kara Lynn Dunn, NYSG's Great Lakes Freelance Publicist, E: karalynn@gisco.net, P: (315) 465-7578 

NYSG is collaborating with NOAA and diverse local partners to support designation of a Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary

Oswego, NY, March 23, 2023 - National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) designation brings economic, environmental, recreational, historic, cultural and educational benefits to NMS waterfront communities. New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and representatives of a four-county region to support designation of a Lake Ontario NMS. The proposed Lake Ontario NMS covers 1724 square miles, with 43 known shipwrecks (as old as the 1700s), one submerged aircraft, and potential to add more sites. Its assets include the David W. Mills, New York State’s first Submerged Cultural Preserve and Dive Site in the Great Lakes region; and the St. Peter on the National Register of Historic Places.

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and representatives of a four-county region to support designation of a Lake Ontario NMS. The proposed Lake Ontario NMS covers 1724 square miles, with 43 known shipwrecks (as old as the 1700s), one submerged aircraft, and potential to add more sites. Its assets include the David W. Mills, New York State’s first Submerged Cultural Preserve and Dive Site in the Great Lakes region; and the St. Peter on the National Register of Historic Places. Oswego County Administrator Philip Church applied for Lake Ontario NMS designation in 2017 on behalf of Oswego, Jefferson, Cayuga and Wayne counties.

NYSG has provided public education on New York’s Great Lakes underwater resources in partnership with maritime museums statewide, county tourism offices, and the Great Lakes Seaway Trail National Scenic Byway. In 2022, NYSG collaborated with Church, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Great Lakes Regional Coordinator Ellen Brody, Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council Vice Chair and Member-at-Large Katie Malinowski, H. Lee White Maritime Museum, and WPBS Public Television for an 8-minute story highlighting the proposed Lake Ontario NMS. NOAA provided video for the story that first aired on August 23, 2022, as part of WPBS Weekly: Inside the Stories, a weekly current affairs show. Local media published note of the availability of the segment online. WPBS Senior Producer Joleene DesRosiers noted that other PBS affiliates, including Detroit Public TV, requested the opportunity to air the segment.
 
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries manages a national network of the sanctuaries in U.S. waters. NMS designation is authorized by the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, NOAA, and the U.S. Congress. NYSG and partners are working to bring NMS designation to Lake Ontario.

Partners: 

• NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries 
• Oswego, Cayuga, Wayne, and Jefferson Counties 
• Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council


Museum of Science & Technology, Syracuse, NY. Credit: NYSG


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.