Michigan Has A National Marine Sanctuary

Explore A National Marine Sanctuary in Michigan

Originally Published in the Lowell Ledger 1.18.23

If you are anything like me and hear the words “National Marine Sanctuary”, the images and places that appear in your mind in some fashion or another probably include the Florida Keys, the Hawaiian Islands, and various places you might explore on the east or west coasts. Such thinking covers almost all of the fifteen locations that have been designated as marine sanctuaries by NOAA - which includes a reference to oceans in the long form of it’s name: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Would you be as surprised as I was to learn that our favorite state has one of the sanctuaries?

If you travel between 234 and 250 miles from Lowell, depending on the route you choose, you can visit the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena. When a friend of mine plopped a half dozen publications on my desk that were all about this phenomenal place, it took a minute for me to process that somehow it had escaped my purview. It is worth mentioning that thirteen of the other sanctuaries are located on the ocean. A stretch of Lake Michigan on the other side of the Big Lake is home to the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the other freshwater sanctuary. It is also worth mentioning that our mental images associating the word “marine” with the briny deep of salted water should be excused. Merriam-Webster lists “of or relating to the sea” as the first definition. Those of us who love to nit pick the choice of words will have to remember that because of a number of characteristics, Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes have long been considered Inland Seas. From what I could ascertain, there is recognition of another fresh water sanctuary in the works.

Now that the semantical hurdles have been leapt, we can move on to the fun part. Thank goodness my ignorance of the sanctuary in Alpena does not stop some one hundred thousand people a year from visiting it. As a side note, I am holding out hope that 20-30% of the visitors to the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center stumbled up it by accident and were unaware that the State of Michigan and NOAA designated the sanctuary in the year 2000.    The evidence seen so far suggests that the number one draw in the sanctuary is the proliferation of wrecked ships resting on the bottom of Thunder Bay. To date, they have identified over 200 of them within the boundaries of the sanctuary. For bragging rights, we can focus on the fact that our sanctuary has way more shipwrecks in a much smaller area than the one in Wisconsin.

Thunder Bay was long recognized as one of the most dangerous places for ships due to the rocky shoals that line the coast combined with murky fog banks and fierce storms that can pop up with little to no warning. Small wonder Thunder Bay is also called “Shipwreck Alley”. Apparently fresh water is well suited for preserving sunken wooden boats and the glass bottomed boat “Lady Michigan” will take you on a two hour tour of the shorelines and waterfront within the sanctuary that passes over many of the well preserved wrecks. The boat operates daily from mid-May to early October. If you don’t want to wait, you can experience a really cool dive with 360° viewing from the safety of your favorite web connection and screen, including VR goggles, by going to: www:sanctuaries.noaa.gov/vr/thunder-bay/shipwreck-alley/ to see the sunken ship “D.M. Wilson”. There are several other virtual dives available on the website, many of which feature wildlife, coral, and beautiful fish.

Aside from providing a nice feeling of summertime during our gray winter, these virtual dives also serve to educate us about all of the life below the surface in salt and fresh water all over our country. The end game of this enlightenment is to encourage all of us to do what we can to protect and preserve all bodies of water for future generations to enjoy and for the overall health of our planet. The first section you will read on the “About” page at www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov is titled “Conservation” and includes these words: “Backed by one of the nation's strongest pieces of ocean conservation legislation, the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the sanctuaries seek to preserve the extraordinary scenic beauty, bio-diversity, historical connections and economic productivity of our most precious underwater treasures. By acting as responsible stewards of these special places, we strengthen our nation now and for future generations.” Hopefully when we take steps to appreciate how our lives on land are dependant on water and the bounty it contains we will move forward with greater attention to how our actions and lifestyle can contribute to keeping all of the water on the Water Planet safe.

The friend who gave me the informational material is very much involved in this most important aspect of our Marine Sanctuaries. Lowell area resident Betsy Lopez-Wagner has been an advocate for the health of water and our planet in general for years and one off shoot of her work was that she was asked to join the Business Advisory Council for the Sanctuaries. Most recently she was designated as co-chair of the Council. The 15 member council is packed with some very heavy hitters from the outdoor recreation, tourism, and conservation sectors. Their mission is to help implement the vision of the sanctuaries by increasing public awareness of them with a focus on the recreation and tourism end of things. Betsy was born outside Chicago and has lived around the Great Lakes as well as on both coasts, which fueled the fire in her belly to protect the planet by helping to safeguard bodies of both fresh and salt water.

“I am deeply motivated by the community where I was born and grew up, a vibrant neighborhood outside of Chicago surrounded by industrial facilities,” Betsy related. “I am dedicated to supporting the growth of an inclusive conservation movement to strengthen state, national, and international level priorities to protect our environment. I am striving to be a healer of Madre Tierra y Mar - our Mother Earth, our oceans, and the sea.”

With life goals like that, Betsy is a perfect fit for a Council dedicated to encouraging the protection and appreciation of natural assets like the marine sanctuary in Alpena. If her name sounds familiar, she and her husband Will live on a small farm north of Lowell and their son Liam is a champion of Monarch butterflies and bees. Liam was profiled last year in the Lowell Ledger.

Having been born on this side of the state and having been raised by a family that spent a lot of time on and around Lake Michigan, I have to admit that in my mind Lake Michigan is THE Great Lake. However, after spending time learning about this wonderful resource in near by Alpena on Lake Huron, a visit to the marine sanctuary there along with a glass bottom boat ride and a visit to the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center are on my Michigan To-Do List. Hope to see you there.