NOAA has designated a 1,722-sq.-mi. area in eastern Lake Ontario as the 16th national marine sanctuary in the U.S. Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary一adjacent to New York’s Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga and Wayne counties一will celebrate the region’s maritime cultural history and provide new opportunities for research, education, recreation, and maritime heritage-related tourism in local coastal communities and the broader Great Lakes region.

Eastern Lake Ontario’s waters and coast tells the story of America’s diverse history and heritage, from early indigenous settlements to today. The area includes transportation and trade routes for Indigenous Peoples and early European explorers, and locations of military conflicts and maritime innovation. Eastern Lake Ontario supported the growth of the young American republic and the nation’s industrial core.

The new sanctuary features an extraordinary collection of 41 known shipwrecks and one known submerged aircraft, among the best preserved in the world, discovered over decades by recreational scuba divers and shipwreck explorers. The shipwrecks, such as St. Peter, a three-masted schooner that was loaded with coal when it was lost in a storm in 1898, embody more than two centuries of the nation’s maritime history. 

NOAA will use its expertise to further locate, research, and monitor these and other maritime cultural resources. NOAA will also focus on education and outreach through partnerships with indigenous governments, local partners, and institutions.

NOAA and the state of New York will co-manage the sanctuary, the third to be designated in the Great Lakes.

Learn more here.