Today there wull be a gathering near Port Oswego honoring the HMS Ontario, which sank in Lake Ontarto during a severe storm in 1780. The ship was carrying 74 British military personnel and thirty American prisoners during the Revolutionary War, making it one of our nation’s oldest known war graves. Now, the State of New York, in collaboration with federal agencies, has officially designated the shipwreck and surrounding waters as a national marine sanctuary. The site represents more than a unique window into our Nation’s origins, it also represents how to conserve our natural resources and maritime heritage in a collaborative, bipartisan way.
The National Marine Sanctuary System is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and consists of a network of underwater parks from Washington State to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. These marine protected areas are designed to conserve America’s most iconic natural and cultural resources, including coral reefs, marine mammals, kelp forests, wetlands, as well as indigenous and maritime heritage sites. The Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary was announced in June of this year, making it the 17th marine protected area of its kind in the U.S.
Marine sanctuaries are symbols of constructive collaboration because their designation process involves extensive outreach with stakeholders at the national, state, and local levels. These stakeholders cooperate in a bipartisan manner, and Lake Ontario was no exception. Both Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Congressman John Katko expressed support for the sanctuary, as did the Trump and Biden Administrations.
The success of NOAA sanctuaries becomes even more apparent when contrasted with marine national monuments, which are another form of marine protected area and are designated by presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Due to the lack of public process, monument designation and management is often controversial. For example, President Biden’s 2021 decision to restrict commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument ignored the open opposition by the commercial fishing industry and all eight regional fisheries management councils, resulting in a lawsuit against the President over the fishing ban.
As we draw closer to the 2024 presidential election, the divisions between the two campaigns could not be more dramatic. The average citizen would be hard-pressed to find just one example where both sides of the aisle find common ground. But there is an example that the authors advanced during the Trump Administration and President Biden continued to support during his term. That is the National Marine Sanctuary System, and we encourage all Americans to consider the collaborative process to designate and expand these national treasures as a model to unite our deeply divided republic.
Rear Admiral (ret.) Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D. is the former acting and Deputy Administrator of NOAA, and former acting Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary of Commerce. Prior to NOAA, he served for 32 years in the U.S. Navy, completing his career as the Oceanographer of the Navy and Commander of the Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Command.
Dr Stuart Levenbach served in four different offices of the Executive Office of the President across three administrations and from 2018 to 2020 as the NOAA Chief of Staff.
Rear Admiral (ret) Tim Gallaudet and Dr. Stu Levenbach
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