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From: Craig Rich-MSRA
Category: Shipwreck Research
Date: 02 Nov 2007
Time: 12:17:19
Remote Name: 63.168.29.210
Levin, Stabenow aim to expand Thunder Bay sanctuary November 1, 2007
By TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
WASHINGTON – The boundaries of a national marine sanctuary on Lake Huron would grow to eight times its current size, stretching from the shoreline to the Canadian boundary under federal legislation introduced today by Michigan Sen. Carl Levin.
The expansion of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary – which is centered in Alpena, about 190 miles north of Detroit – would help restrict any activities which could damage an area full of shipwrecks and history, Levin said. He was a strong supporter of Thunder Bay’s original designation as a marine sanctuary in 2000 and both he and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, are sponsoring the legislation to expand the sanctuary.
The legislation would extend the sanctuary’s boundaries to include the waters off Alcona, Alpena and Presque Isle counties in Michigan, covering 3,722 square miles of water and 226 miles of shoreline. The current sanctuary covers 448 square miles of water and 115 miles of shoreline.
The expansion would add about 180 shipwrecks to the 116 protected in the current sanctuary, including the site where the Cornelia B. Windiate, a three-mast wooden schooner, went down in December 1875 bound from Milwaukee to Buffalo.
“Thunder Bay is an underwater museum of maritime history,” Levin said. “It is one of the few places where researchers and divers can go to explore well-preserved shipwrecks and witness this history firsthand.”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071101/NEWS06/71101033