Clayton Diving Club - NOAA marine sanctuary for Lake Ontario

A special meeting was held by the Clayton Diving Club on Thursday, June 20 at the Cape Vincent Library to discuss  NOAA’s proposed national marine sanctuary in Lake Ontario.  In attendance were Dennis and Kathi McCarthy, Diane Hammond, Ken & Carol Kozin, Dick Bleier, Ken Knapp, Bruce Rippeteau, John Krake and Joe Dudiak.

 

A number of the members attended a special meeting with NOAA representatives in order to better understand the proposal and to provide valuable input to their draft.  There was much discussion from those attending members who provided unique insight into the existing proposed area as well as the potential to an expanded area to include the 1000 Island region.  Some of the significant benefits discussed were the following:

 

• Continue to develop and expand the shipwreck buoy program
• Provide for the maintenance and support of the club’s existing shipwreck buoys
• Expand on the effort to protect and monitor the shipwrecks
• Possible clean-up of oil contamination from existing wrecks (i.e., America, Jodery)

 

Some of the challenges mentioned would be the following:

 

• Unique to New York, land owner boundaries that expand beyond high water mark into the river
• Resolving existing responsibilities with various state agencies (i.e., DEC, Office of General Services, NYS Parks & Recreation, etc)

 

After much discussion, it was unanimously agreed that the Clayton Diving Club should provide a formal comment to the NOAA proposal.  Dennis McCarthy agreed to draft the comment.   All members of the club are urged to review the proposal and provide relevant feedback to NOAA.   The proposal can be viewed at https://nominate.noaa.gov/media/documents/lake_ontario_nms_nomination_appendix_011717.pdf and any feedback can be submitted to https://www.regulations.gov  (use docket number NOAA-NOS-2019-0032)