Federal designation could spur economic, educational opportunities in the Lakeshore area
MANITOWOC— Norma Bishop’s seven-year quest to see a National Marine Sanctuary off of the Lakeshore area coast may still be years away from becoming reality.
“This mid-lake region has the most historically significant and intact shipwrecks,” the executive director of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum on Monday told U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, elected in 2012 after seven terms in Congress representing Madison.
“This could be an amazing educational and economic boon to the city and state,” Bishop told Wisconsin’s junior senator and 15 other civic and business leaders gathered to extol the benefits of a federally designated sanctuary. Among them were Manitowoc's current and former mayors, Justin Nickels and Kevin Crawford, City Council members, and museum board members.
After 21 years in the U.S. Navy and a couple of years as executive director of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, the Chicagoland native returned in 2005 to the lake she grew up on and to lead the museum that features the USS Cobia submarine.
And it is the “submerged cultural resources” — including 33 known shipwrecks in an area from Two Rivers to Port Washington — in marine sanctuary lingo that may eventually fulfill Bishop’s dream.
But, first, comes trying to influence the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s criteria for choosing future sanctuaries with a public comment deadline of Aug. 27.
Since program inception 40 years ago, only 14 sites have been named including a humpback whale sanctuary in Hawaii, the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Keys and other ocean locales.
Just one on the Great Lakes ... the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a visitor center in Alpena, Mich., on Lake Huron staffed by NOAA employees and the Michigan Historical Society since 2000.
Bishop has visited Alpena and seen the impact on the community and how charter boat captains take fishers out in the morning and then shipwreck divers out in the afternoon.
Schooner Coast
Bob Desh, executive director of the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, shares Bishop’s vision and was one of those lobbying Baldwin to support a future Wisconsin sanctuary application, which might be submitted as early as January 2014, should NOAA decide to add sites.
“If you’re a wreck diver, this is nirvana,” Desh said of the clear Lake Michigan waters enabling good views of such vessels as the S.S. Francis Hinton, a steamship built in Manitowoc in 1889 carrying lumber when it sank in 1909. It lies in just 19 feet of water just off Mariners Trail.
Then there’s the so-called Christmas Tree Schooner, Rouse Simmons, built in 1868 lost in a storm off Two Rivers in 1912.
Desh and Bishop and their two museums have already collaborated on creation of a “Schooner Coast” marketing and branding campaign linking their two facilities with the theme, “Sixty Miles ... A Thousand Stories.”
Schooner Coast National Marine Sanctuary was the name they shared with a NOAA official as the possible name for any sanctuary that might become reality after a several year process including extensive public involvement and comment and environmental impact reports.
Bishop said a spirit of non-partisanship should prevail as she seeks support from Baldwin, a Democrat, as well as fellow U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and his Republican colleague Gov. Scott Walker. Bishop said Walker’s tourism secretary, Stephanie Klett, is strongly supportive of the sanctuary quest.
During her campaign seeking support from governmental officials and the public, Bishop says the sanctuaries are the focus of films, documentaries, books and TV broadcasts, as well as invaluable educational programming to schools and students.
Bishop forecasts the possibility of a live TV feed showing divers at a shipwreck site with the video displayed on big screen at the museum with children able to ask questions.
She said the Thunder Bay sanctuary attracts about 100,000 annually and believes with Manitowoc more centrally located to larger urban centers in the Midwest, as many as 250,000 visitors might come to this area from all over the world.
'Would be divine'
Baldwin said most Great Lakes initiatives in Congress have bi-partisan support. She supports “Fresh Water” science programs coordinated by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Baldwin clearly gave indications she will be supportive of any bid by Wisconsin to land a national marine sanctuary designation.
“It is a very exciting program that allows us to preserve underwater archaeology, in this case shipwrecks,” Baldwin said after touring the Cobia following remarks by Bishop and others. “It appears Wisconsin has a real opportunity to be part of the marine sanctuary program.
“It would be divine if this can work,” Baldwin said. “Of course, there are a lot of complexities ... I hope to help navigate them,” she said, tongue in cheek.
