New Marine Sanctuary Will Protect Historic Shipwrecks in Lake Michigan
July 20th, 2021 — by Amiah A. Henry — Category: Marine Monuments
In late June 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designated Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary (WSCNMS or Sanctuary) in the fresh, cold waters of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Designation; Final Regulations, 86 Fed. Reg. 32,737 (to be codified at 15 C.F.R pt. 922). Following a review by Congress and the governor of Wisconsin, the designation will become effective in the first weeks of August 2021, at which time NOAA will publish an announcement in the Federal Register. It is set to become the fifteenth national sanctuary and only the second in freshwater.
On his first day in office, President Biden issued an Executive Order broadly resetting environmental policy at the federal level in the United States. Executive Order 13,990 creates a policy to restore and expand national monuments, and also directs the Secretary of Interior to review monument boundaries and Presidential Proclamations affecting national monuments.
On June 5th, while on a visit to Maine, President Trump signed a proclamation that opens the Northeastern Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. This proclamation was made in hopes of helping the fishing industry bounce back after the nation's economic crisis, but it may lead to more legal battles before achieving this goal.
In December, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld President Barack Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
In 2016, President Obama designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument under the Antiquities Act. The monument, which encompasses 4,913 square miles off the coast of New England, marked the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean. Recently, in Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Ross, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a challenge to the designation. (2018 WL 4853901 (D.D.C. Oct. 5, 2018)).
