The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council meets in-person Jan. 26 in Newport News, Virginia.

The public is invited to attend the meeting 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at The Mariners’ Museum and Park, 100 Museum Drive.

An agenda is available for download from the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary website, monitor.noaa.gov.

The advisory council was established in 2005 to assure continuous public participation in the management of the sanctuary and to provide advice to the sanctuary superintendent on cultural resource protection, critical issues involving sanctuary use or resources, sanctuary research objectives, and education and outreach programs. The council represents a variety of local user groups, the public and state and federal government agencies.

Managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was designated in 1975 to protect the wreck of the famed Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, which sank in 1862 during a storm 16 miles off Cape Hatteras.

The U.S. Postal Service has released 16 new Forever stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary System, a network of underwater parks totaling more than 620,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters.

The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act that established a framework for designating national marine sanctuaries was signed into law Oct. 23, 1972.

Now Managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the system of national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments have protected areas with special ecological, cultural and historical significance.

The 16 stamps released Friday and now available online, showcase the abundant wildlife, scenic beauty and underwater archaeological treasures found throughout the sanctuary system, which currently has 15 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments, from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific, and from the Florida Keys to the Pacific Northwest, according to the Postal Service.

The system preserves habitats that are especially vital for the survival of threatened and endangered species, including threatened green sea turtles, endangered Hawaiian monk seals and critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales. The system also safeguards feeding and breeding grounds for humpback whales, seabirds such as albatross and shearwaters and a variety of other species.

The system originated with the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, home to the Civil War shipwreck USS Monitor on the Outer Banks. The latest designation is the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which protects unique Great Lakes resources.

“The sanctuary system balances the protection of the nation’s maritime ecosystems and maritime history by allowing visitors to enjoy the sanctuaries responsibly,” officials said.

The majority of U.S. national marine sanctuaries and marine national monuments are open for sustainable recreation, including diving and snorkeling, kayaking and canoeing, sailing and sport fishing, and have educational centers. The sanctuaries also help preserve and celebrate the ancient sites, cultural artifacts and living traditions of the Indigenous peoples who have inhabited these regions for millennia.

The 16 stamps include photographs by Daryl Duda, Michael Durham, Mark Sullivan, Peter Turcik and Norbert Wu, and by NOAA employees Wendy Cover, Jeff Harris, Elliott Hazen, Joseph Hoyt, Ed Lyman, Greg McFall, Matt McIntosh, G. P. Schmahl and Kate Thompson.

“National Marine Sanctuaries” appears in blue type at the top of the pane. The words “USA” and “Forever” are at the bottom left of each stamp. A map of the National Marine Sanctuary System, illustrated by Todd M. Detwiler, is printed on the back of the pane. Art director Greg Breeding designed the pane using existing photographs, according to the Postal Service.

CAPE HATTERAS — This year is the 50th anniversary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Sanctuary Systems, an occasion that by definition makes the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary extra special because it was the very first one.

The problem is that most Americans may be thinking: “What’s a marine sanctuary system?” And even if the public is aware that they exist, do they understand their purpose?

“Not nearly enough,” John Armor, director of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, said in a recent interview. “We have a lot of work to do on that.”

Next week, the public can see for themselves the value a sanctuary offers. From Sunday, May 15, through Wednesday, May 25, people will have a golden opportunity to watch groundbreaking science livestreamed during a new expedition at the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

According to a NOAA press release, a team of scientists and divers working off NOAA Ship Nancy Foster as a research platform will employ state-of-the-art technologies, including underwater drones, to explore the Monitor Civil War ironclad and other shipwrecks in the surrounding area as part of a study on their value as fish reefs.

Described by NOAA on its website as a “network of underwater parks,” the sanctuary system totals more than 620,000 square miles and includes 15 national marine sanctuaries on Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, American Samoa and the Great Lakes, as well as the Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll marine national monuments.

The National Marine Sanctuary System turns 50 on Oct. 23.

“I think the 50th anniversary is really an opportunity for us to sort of expand the tent and bring a lot more awareness to and frankly appreciation for them and love of the National Marine Sanctuaries system more broadly,” Armor said.

Armor, who has been at the helm since 2016, said that current efforts are focused on connecting local communities more to the sanctuary’s work. Sanctuaries also need to be more accessible, including engagement with tribal and indigenous communities, he said. And its workforce needs to be more diverse.

When the sanctuary system was created in 1972 with passage of The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, it was one of a series of landmark coastal protection bills enacted around that time, which also included the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Clean Water Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments, according to NOAA’s online history of the system.

But it took three years for the first sanctuary to come to fruition, and it was fortuitous timing that the Monitor was discovered about 20 miles off Cape Hatteras by Duke University researchers the year after the system was created.

A centerpiece

From the moment the USS Monitor steamed into Hampton Roads in early 1862, the Union Navy’s first ironclad dazzled as a wartime engineering phenomenon. Its nearly four-hour battle less than two months later in a Norfolk harbor with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia ultimately came to a draw but sealed its heroic legacy.

Even after the famed battleship and its 16 officers and crew went down that same year during a vicious New Year’s Eve gale, the Monitor remained a centerpiece of scientific and cultural interest.

Situated in the notorious “Graveyard of the Atlantic” — feared by mariners for its shifting, shallow shoals — the sunken vessel sits on the ocean floor 230 feet deep in a column of water a nautical mile in diameter. The site was designated as the nation’s first marine sanctuary Jan. 30, 1975.

Thousands of artifacts have been recovered from the Monitor, most of which are housed at The Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. In 2001, NOAA, the U.S. Navy and The Mariners Museum, among others, partnered in five expeditions to retrieve numerous artifacts, including its steam engine and a section of the hull. The next year, the Monitor’s revolving turret was brought up from the ocean floor in a 42-day expedition. 

When the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, part of the North Carolina Maritime Museum system, completes its exhibit installation in the coming months, it anticipates including artifacts from the Monitor.

The original impetus for the Hatteras museum was spurred by the discovery of the Monitor wreck, but planning and funding difficulties delayed the project until long after the artifacts had gone to Virginia.

In 2008, the Monitor Sanctuary proposed expanding its parameters to include some sunken war wrecks in the vicinity, including World War II U-boats. But after a series of public meetings in which local divers and fishers expressed concerns about increased restrictions, the proposed plan was tabled.

NOAA, meanwhile, says that Navy regulations provide protections for the sunken vessels.

But Armor said that the expansion plan could be restarted, with more public input. Currently, NOAA is working to establish new sanctuaries off Hawaii and the south-central coast of California.

Once those planning processes are finalized, which could happen within 18 months or so, then the proposed expansion of the Monitor Sanctuary could potentially be reconsidered, he said.

Open process

Armor said he understands community suspicion or skepticism about restrictions, but he assured that each sanctuary has its own specific plan, with its own set of regulations and permitted activities that are developed by, with and for the community.

“That’s the thing that we love about the sanctuary process, is it is so open and collaborative,” he said. “We really go a long ways to making sure that we’re engaging all sectors of potentially affected communities in the decision and really benefit from guidance and perspective that communities have to offer. So, there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to any of these topics that would come from the national office.”

Enforcement, also, is done on a site-by-site basis by the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, which works closely with the Coast Guard and state wildlife agencies.

While activities such as diving and fishing are permitted in most areas of marine sanctuaries, Armor said, they also provide refuge to fish and other sea life, foster resilience and allow for almost real-time scientific monitoring to protect habitat and water quality.

And marine sanctuaries help in addressing an issue, he said, “that can be too big for people to even wrap their minds around.”

“I think the impacts of climate change and how they’re being felt in communities across the country has really highlighted the value that National Marine Sanctuaries can bring to the problem,” he said. “And so, sanctuaries and other protected areas on land and in the ocean help us focus our attention and help us focus our messaging on what we can do as average citizens to help address these challenges.”

Armor said that NOAA is planning a series of events leading up to the October anniversary celebration, which are detailed on a newly updated website.

It’s all part of getting the word out to the public, so they can celebrate what most didn’t even know they had. 

“And again, using the 50th anniversary not to look backwards and pat ourselves on the back for all the great things we’ve done,” he said, “but to challenge ourselves and to look forward to how we can do better down the road.”

Reprinted from the Island Free Press

The wreck site of the USS Monitor has become popular with recreational divers. Here, one explores the bow of the ship. Photo: NOAA

WANCHESE — Expansion of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary could encompass nearly all of the existing wrecks off the N.C. coast, where ships were lost in storms and every conflict that raged off the coast.

Or the nation’s first marine sanctuary, situated 16 miles off Hatteras, could expand to include just a few more isolated but significant wreck sites.

Four draft models in various range and scope were presented last month at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese during a meeting of the Sanctuary’s advisory council.

“What you see here today is sort of the first step out of the gate,” Sanctuary Superintendent Dave Alberg said.

Alberg quickly added that “every one of these is designed not to limit, not to restrict” diving activities, an acknowledgement of the intense skepticism from divers since the prospect of expansion was first raised in 2008.

Designated in 1975 to protect the remains of the famed Civil War ironclad Monitor that was lost in a New Year’s Eve storm in 1862, the sanctuary, currently is a column of water one nautical mile in diameter around the sunken vessel. The wreck was discovered in 1973 under 230 feet of water about 16 miles off Cape Hatteras. It’s managed by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, .

During the planning process for the sanctuary management plan, finished in early 2013, some divers reacted with suspicion when they learned the management plan included the option to expand.

“In the southern Outer Banks, we all know what’s happened with the federal government,” commercial fisherman and diver Steve Wilson told Alberg at a meeting in 2012, in a comment that typified the sentiments expressed by other divers.  “It doesn’t matter what reassurances we receive. Any third party can come along and blow that right out of the water.”

Comments from divers at last month’s meeting seemed to reflect the inevitability of some expansion, with mostly pragmatic rather than mistrustful questions about access, costs and regulations.

Jim Bunch, a veteran diver who presented the Expansion Working Group recommendations to the council, said that the group felt that it was important to not cause any harm to the diving and fishing communities. In the interest of protecting the resource, no removal of artifacts or disturbance of the wreck would be permitted, but fishing and anchoring over the wreck would not be restricted.

The USS Monitor sank about 16 miles from Cape Hatteras and sits in about 230 feet of water. Map: WUNC

“I guess our overriding concern,” Bunch said, “is that people involved with these wrecks would not be detrimentally affected.”

Bunch said later that dive operations have been stretched to the limit by fuel increases and other cost-of-living pressures. Access to wrecks is important, but so is staying in business.

“Their plea was, ‘Don’t do anything to us that’s going to cost us any money,’” Bunch said. “‘We barely get by as it is.’”
In Model A, the sanctuary would include noncontiguous wreck sites, such as the well-known U-85, the HMT Bedfordshire and the U-701, but not include state waters. Model B – the working group preference – would be a compact area centered off Cape Hatteras that included several wrecks with a historic theme, for instance, North American exploration. Ideally, this would include wrecks in state and federal waters. It would maintain free and open access to ocean users and include a recommendation for a minimum 10-year sunset clause.

Model C is a hybrid of A and B that includes areas between each known site as study areas, making it easier for inclusion of wrecks discovered in the future.

Model D represents a collection of federal and state wrecks from many eras and historically significant wrecks off the Outer Banks.

Potential downsides of each of the draft models were included in the discussion material. For instance, large areas will have management and enforcement challenges, and separated areas lack connectivity.

“This is a very difficult thing for us to do because, frankly, every single shipwreck off the coast represents a story,” said Kevin Duffus, a member of the expansion advisory committee. “If I had my way, I would want to include every single shipwreck out there, especially those wrecks that resulted in loss of life. But that’s not practical.”

Joe Hoyt, also with the working group and a NOAA marine archaeologist, said that the focus was on finding a realistic way to enhance the resource – access for divers and protection of the sunken vessels – as well as the educational opportunities for the public.

Top: The USS Monitor, foreground, and the CSS Virginia fight to a draw in Hampton Roads in March 1862 in the first battle of iron warships. Nine months later, the Monitor sinks in a storm off Cape Hatteras. Illustrations: Monitor Collection, Library of Congress

“We knew, obviously, we couldn’t do the take-everything model,” Hoyt said. “We want to have some of those iconic ones that are representative of our maritime heritage.”

Hoyt said that multiple data bases provide details about each shipwreck — type of vessel, location, date, historic significance, even what shipping lane or inlet it went down in.  With the dreaded Graveyard of the Atlantic off North Carolina having one of the greatest concentrations of wrecks in the world, there’s a lot to work with.

“This is the very beginning of a discussion of what this could look like,” he said. “This will probably change multiple times before this comes to fruition.”

After the advisory council submits its recommendation on a suitable model for expansion to NOAA, formal public scoping meetings will be held, likely in the fall, Alberg said. A draft environmental impact statement will be drafted for review, and a final plan is expected in two to three years. Opportunity for public input will be provided at all stages of the process.

“The intent here is not to take anything from anybody,” he said.

But Gary Gentile, the man who successfully sued NOAA – in four lawsuits over eight years — to force the agency to allow diving on the Monitor, remains cynical about expansion of the sanctuary and NOAA sanctuaries in general, which he accused of restricting access to wrecks and fishing at sites in other states.

“It has nothing to do with preservation –it has to do with control,” he said in a telephone interview.

Gentile, 68, who lives in the mountains in Jim Thorp, Pa., has dived all over the world, including the Outer Banks.

The fact that NOAA allowed funding of the Monitor artifact preservation at The Mariner’s Museum to lapse in January, he said, impugns their trustworthiness.

“So they let it go,” he said. “They reneged on that.”

Gentile conceded, however, that he is not objective.

“Of course, you have to imagine,” he said, “that I have a bad taste in my mouth about NOAA.”

NAGS HEAD — Soured by what they view as onerous government restrictions on fishing, boating and beach driving, Outer Banks divers are skeptical of a proposed update of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary that would include any possibility of future expansion.

But sanctuary officials said the draft plan does not propose or advocate an expansion; it only proposes discussion of whether or not the sanctuary should protect more wrecks off the coast.

David Alberg

“This is not an effort to shut down the site,” David Alberg, the sanctuary superintendent, told an audience of mostly divers and fishermen at a public meeting last month at Jennette’s Pier. “It’s an attempt to better understand the resource.”

Alberg said that the need to discuss expansion was first raised during public scoping meetings in 2008, and ultimately was recommended by the sanctuary’s advisory council, a representative group with interests in fishing, recreational diving, education, business, research, tourism, conservation and government.

If the draft plan is approved, it would prompt a dialogue with the community about the potential value, or downside, of expanding. It merely puts the question on the table, he said — not preordains the outcome.

“The answer is, let’s hold those public meetings,” Alberg said. “NOAA can’t make those decisions unless we get that public input.”

Designated in January 1975 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as the nation’s first marine sanctuary, the Monitor sanctuary is a column of water one-mile in diameter centered on the remains of the Civil War ironclad Monitor. The Union vessel, which was headed south to Beaufort, sank 16 miles off Cape Hatteras during a raging New Year’s Eve storm in 1862, taking the lives of 16 men.

Although the ship has alone proven to be a goldmine for researchers — more than 2,000 artifacts were preserved in recovery efforts —– it also sits within the notorious Graveyard of the Atlantic, where thousands of vessels dating to pre-colonial history through World War II were lost to pirates, weather and wars.

In addition to the issue of potential expansion, the sanctuary staff identified priorities, based on council recommendations: resource protection; education and outreach; archeology; resource monitoring and science; identification of human remains recovered from the Monitor; conservation of the Monitor and the Monitor artifacts; and site administration and operations.

According to Joe Hoyt, a NOAA marine archaeologist shown here, 50 to 60 Allied, Axis and merchant vessel wrecks rest off the North Carolina coast. Those wrecks could be protected as part of an expanded Monitor Marine Sanctuary. Photo: Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

Clearly, it was the idea of expansion of the Monitor sanctuary that most concerned those at the Nags Head meeting.

“In the southern Outer Banks, we all know what’s happened with the federal government,” Steve Wilson, a commercial fisherman and diver, told Alberg. “It doesn’t matter what reassurances we receive. Any third party can come along and blow that right out of the water.”

David “Crocket” Farrow, who owns a dive charter business in Manteo, said that despite Alberg’s promise to listen, he believes that, ultimately, NOAA intends to expand, no matter what the local community says.

“We live for this ocean,” he said. “Now when government comes in, it’s just fight after fight. What y’all do to us is hard, man. We’re like Indians on a reservation right now. Everywhere we go, there’s government surrounding us.”

And he said he is not alone in his skepticism about NOAA.

“Expand, expand, expand —- you keep bringing it up,” he said to Alberg. “We don’t want it. Nobody I know wants it.”

Others at the meeting agreed, saying that putting anything in the plan about expansion of the sanctuary, even just saying it should be discussed, would be akin to guaranteeing expansion. And to them, that mean less access for folks who make their living on the water, and more control to government.

In a later interview, Alberg acknowledged that the Monitor sanctuary has been more restrictive than the other 12 sanctuaries in the system, but that is mostly because of the uniqueness of the vessel and its extraordinary location. Divers need to apply for research permits, although they’re free, and research can mean simply taking photographs. Nonetheless, Alberg said that he thinks a less restrictive model would be more appropriate. With the wreck under 235 feet of water — considered a ‘tech dive’ — only two to three divers annually even apply for a permit.

Otherwise, fishing on the wreck is fine, as long as the engine is not cut off, there are no drag nets used and an anchor isn’t dropped. Boats come and go and people fish over it all the time, he said.

“One of the problems is the word ‘sanctuary’,” Alberg said. “People hear that and they think: ‘Stay away! Don’t come in! Don’t do anything!’”

Another way of thinking of a sanctuary, however,is as a designated site that merits appreciation, but that also preserves cultural, natural and historic resources for future generations to enjoy. For instance, much of the Battle of the Atlantic took place in North Carolina waters, and there is no other place in the world where divers can access three German U-boats — as long as they’re not touched or salvaged. A sanctuary that promotes the site on a national scale, while fostering its protection, could attract cultural and heritage tourism and booster the Outer Banks as a dive destination.

Another site, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Mich., is also in the process of updating its management plan, but the community has specifically requested expansion, said Carol Shafto, the chair of the sanctuary council for seven years and the town’s former mayor.

Before Thunder Bay was designated in 2000, many members of the Lake Huron community — also divers and fishermen — were suspicious and distrustful of NOAA, she said, fearing restrictive regulations and requirements like user fees and permits. Folks even took to wearing “Say no to NOAA” buttons. In response, NOAA agreed to a five-year sunset clause.

But at the end of five years, the community, which is 100 miles from a freeway, was reaping the benefits from cultural tourism and gladly renewed.

“Now we’re into 12 years, and it’s very difficult to find people who admit they were against the sanctuary,” Shafto said. “It may be the most significant and positive thing this community has ever done.”

Shafto said that there is a new heritage center, a major new museum that displays shipwreck artifacts, a new nautical festival, a new glass-bottom boat tour to show wrecks in shallow waters, and most recently, an effort to expand land-based amusements for families.

“It’s more than a mecca for divers,” she said. “It’s become a family destination. There’s been a lot of positive spinoff that wouldn’t have otherwise happened.”

Alberg said that a 2005 survey done by East Carolina University determined that from about 1600 through World War II, 2,500 to 3,000 vessels went down between Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout. But most of those ships don’t exist anymore, and NOAA is not including any wish list in the draft plan detailing what vessels to include or what size an expanded sanctuary should be.

Jim Bunch

Jim Bunch, a veteran Outer Banks diver and member of the Monitor sanctuary advisory council, said that he understands why local divers and fishermen would be nervous about more government control off the coast and “making it basically a wildlife preserve.” Yet the reality is, he said, that the only thing government has tried to stop them from doing is removing artifacts from wrecks. In fact, he has never heard anyone say anything bad about the Monitor sanctuary.

“The big problem is the unknown,” said Bunch, who has been diving since 1955. “I think the preservation part, there’s no problem with that.”

There’s about 10 or so dive operators on the Outer Banks, Bunch said, and no more than 30 along the entire North Carolina coast, and they take out thousands of divers each summer.

Bunch said that if NOAA approached the community and reassured them— say, there won’t be fees, they’d work on publicity, they’d help out in any way they could —- folks would be willing to go along with an expanded sanctuary.

“It’s honestly good for them,” he said. “It just increases the awareness of what’s out there.”