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1997 SAC Report

The Sanctuary Advisory Council for the proposed Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary prepared a report during the public comment period in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement / Draft Management Plan. The report was submitted to NOAA and the Governor of Michigan in November 1997. The purpose of the report was to provide NOAA and the State of Michigan with recommendations for various alternatives, and other comments and recommendations on the DEIS/DMP, based on local discussions with stakeholders with different interests. Participation was encouraged from individuals in groups known to have differing interests related to the proposed sanctuary, as well as from elected officials representing part or all of the area that would be affected if the sanctuary were designated.

Excerpted here is the list of 25 recommendations made by the SAC in their report:

  • Impose no additional regulations or required fees on existing uses of the waters and submerged lands within the sanctuary boundaries, beyond protecting specifically defined cultural resources. Existing uses include, but are not limited to: sport fishing, commercial fishing, waterfowl hunting, sport diving, commercial diving, charter diving operations, commercial diving operations, boating, and swimming.
  • Provide public access to all public lands and aquatic resources within the sanctuary without requiring any fee, license, or special permit.
  • Make no sanctuary regulations that directly or indirectly affect private and public lands along the shoreline of the sanctuary.
  • Exempt TBNMS from paragraph 922.44 (page 69 of volume 1 of DEIS/DMP); that is, authorize no immediate temporary regulation of permitted activities.
  • Exempt from prosecution charter boat operators and personal sport divers who dive a wreck without a mooring buoy, if the reason for the absence of a buoy is that it has not been set, or that it has been accidentally destroyed.
  • Require no funding or services for the sanctuary from local governments.
  • Retain intact the State's title to and authority over state-owned waters and submerged lands included within the sanctuary boundary.
  • Keep in place all existing State and local authority over activity in the sanctuary area, and add no authority to the federal government other than specific protection of defined cultural resources within the sanctuary boundaries.
  • Adopt sanctuary regulations that mirror the State of Michigan regulations protecting underwater cultural resources, per option A, Regulatory Alternatives, page 183 of the DEIS/DMP.
  • Use state and federal funds to maintain mooring buoys, anchored within 50 feet of each dive site, from May 1 to October 31 of each year, on all identified wrecks within the sanctuary that are within 130 feet of the surface. Fit the anchor line for each buoy with a permanent guideline that maintains a depth of +/- 5 feet from the shallowest point of the dive site.
  • Regularly publicize coordinates of existing and newly found shipwrecks, dates of upcoming studies of wrecks and other research projects, and results of completed and ongoing research projects.
  • Use State and federal funds, and/or assistance in fundraising, to purchase and install a hyperbaric chamber near the sanctuary.
  • Provide incentives and mechanisms to encourage private individuals and companies to explore shipwrecks not yet discovered; and to share information and documentation they already have, or gather in the future, on shipwrecks in the area.
  • Provide State and federal support for selecting, purchasing, cleaning up, and scuttling additional vessels within the sanctuary.
  • Develop joint State and federal public education programs, including a web page on the Internet, to promote understanding of the resources available in the sanctuary to the public of the state, nation, and world.
  • Provide joint federal and State support to local educational organizations, and to selected other colleges and universities, to develop programming to educate children of all ages, college students, and the public about aspects of marine and ecological science and history in the Thunder Bay area; and to train educators in the use of that programming.
  • Provide that the sanctuary manager or designee shall make presentations as requested to community organizations on the functions, budget, and staff of the sanctuary.
  • Provide publicity and mechanisms to invite and incorporate the involvement of area residents, who have appropriate credentials and experience, in sanctuary research projects.
  • Provide specific mechanisms for involving the diving community in planning and conducting research and educational projects related to the sanctuary.
  • Use federal and State funds to document the cultural resources within the sanctuary, and to provide at least one public resource center throughout each tourist season.
  • Arrange the boundaries of the sanctuary to include only areas with a high concentration of known and probable wrecks.
  • Involve the existing SAC in reviewing and revising the Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that it accurately addresses local concerns.
  • Specify procedures that prohibit unilateral NOAA action, and include broad-based community input from the three-county area, when changes are made to the sanctuary agreement or when sanctuary operating procedures are developed or altered.
  • Specify the details of boundaries, budget, buoy placement, and enforcement before the Memorandum of Understanding is signed.
  • Grant no leases that remove oil and/or gas from locations under the bottom lands within the sanctuary boundaries.

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