Capping years of work, NOAA on Wednesday officially designated 1,722 square miles of eastern Lake Ontario in New York as the country’s 16th national marine sanctuary.
“I’ve got to tell you as a native New Yorker I am absolutely delighted that the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary is the first marine sanctuary in the great state of New York, but not the last,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, who announced the long-awaited designation at an ocean conference in Washington.
NOAA officials said the new sanctuary will protect a collection of 41 shipwrecks and a submerged aircraft discovered over decades by both scuba divers and shipwreck explorers. It will be co-managed by NOAA and the state of New York.
The lake, which measures 802 feet at its greatest depth, also supplies drinking water for more than 10 million people.
