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Photo Tane Casserley 

By Roxanne Werly - Up North Live
 

NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is taking public comments on expansion plans for the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron.

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is underway to consider the expansion plans.

The National Marine Sanctuaries office is soliciting public and stakeholder comment on the proposed action and its alternatives through May 25.

These comments will be used to help prepare the draft EIS. During the process to review the sanctuary's management plan in 2006, NOAA received comments expressing interest in expanding the sanctuary's boundary to include the waters adjacent to Alcona and Presque Isle counties.

Specifically, several local government and non-governmental organizations passed resolutions or submitted written letters of support for boundary expansion.

Additionally, in 2007, the Thunder Bay Sanctuary Advisory Council adopted a resolution supporting expanded boundaries.

"The sanctuary community has expressed an interested in expanding Thunder Bay sanctuary boundaries and we are listening," said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., NOAA administrator.

"This scoping process will allow us to develop some options and discuss what they could mean for the community. This is the beginning of the process and we appreciate input from all members of the community."

One of 14 sites managed by NOAA as part of the National Marine Sanctuary System, Thunder Bay is economically very important to a region that has seen the loss of other industries.

Through increased tourism and related business development, the sanctuary is working with various partners to encourage sustainable tourism and use of the Great Lakes and their history.

"Thunder Bay has had a tremendous impact on the economy of Northeast lower Michigan," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.

"This sanctuary not only serves as a destination for tourists in the region, but it also stirs the imagination and connects people with the history of the Great Lakes as well as sanctuaries thousands of miles away.

I am pleased that NOAA is pursing the expansion of this vital asset as it will bring even more stories to life, piquing our curiosity, inspiring school children to new pursuits, and broadening our understanding of the Great Lakes and their rich history."

Full story...

 
Photo Bob Weber

From CBC News

Divers with the Canadian military will make their way under the sea ice to explore a Franklin-era shipwreck.

The exercise is part of the annual Operation Nunalivut, which takes place in the High Arctic near Resolute. Divers from three provinces will head down with remote-operated vehicles to look at the HMS Breadalbane.

In 1853, the ship sank off Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound. It had been part of the search for John Franklin’s lost ships, the Erebus and Terror, and their crews.

The Breadalbane’s crew had to abandon ship when it became trapped in an ice floe, and the crew was later rescued by another ship.

"We don't think anybody's conducted any drive operations on it in about 10 years, and the last time that they did it looked to be in really good shape," said Lt. Col. Glen MacNeil, who is leading the operation.

"You could clearly see the outline of the ship and the masts were still there on it with sails so it'll be interesting to see what type of images we get." The Breadalbane is now a national historic site of Canada.

Operation Nunalivut ends May 1.

From Paul Fraser Collectibles

The R.M.S Titanic: 100 Years of Fact & Fiction sale at Bonhams saw a ticket to the launch of the ill-fated vessel reach $56,250.

The auction on Sunday (April 15, 2012) was held to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the ship. It saw some of the most important and rare Titanic memorabilia go on sale, crowned by the launch ticket.

The ticket, which admits one to the launch of the ship at Belfast, allowed the holder to witness the ship roll into the sea before being towed to the fitting out berth. Noted for its rarity, the item is unused with the perforated admission stub still attached.

A First-Class menu from the ship brought $31,250. It shows the dinner listings from the first night of the voyage, which included Surrey Capon & Ox Tongue as a main course. A First-Class menu from the last night of the ship's journey sold for £76,000, reaching huge figures due to its date of April 14.

A Marconi message from the Titanic reading: "WE HAVE STRUCK AN ICEBERG", sold for $27,500 at the New York auction.

This chilling message was sent from the ship to R.M.S Olympic shortly after distress calls were sent out. The Olympic was 505 miles from the ship when the message was received.

Titanic auctions have reached fever pitch due to this month's 100 year anniversary.

By Richard Giedroyc - Numismater

Spain has finally succeeded, recovering an estimated 594,000 early 19th century primarily silver coins dredged from the Atlantic Ocean by the treasure hunting company Odyssey Marine Exploration of Florida. The coins were repatriated via a ruling by U.S. courts.

A U.S. District Court recently ruled in Spain’s favor, honoring international treaties regarding warships sunk in battle. According to international treaties, such sunken ships remain as the property of the government owning such a ship rather than becoming available to treasure hunters. The British sunk this Spanish treasure on its way to Spain during 1804.

The fact it was a Spanish ship didn’t stop Peru from claiming the coins since many of the coins had been struck at Spanish colonial mints in that country. The Peruvian claims went the same way as did those of the Odyssey Marine Exploration.

On Feb. 25 the coins, along with additional artifacts, were shipped to Madrid, a city in which the coins had never before been, in a country in which the coins had never before been. Spain won this round of the cultural patrimony wars.

At the time Odyssey divers found the shipwreck of the Nuestra Senor de las Mercedes off Portugal’s Atlantic coast it was announced the treasure was worth about $500 million to collectors.

On Feb. 25 Jose Ignacio Wert, Spain’s education, culture and sports minister made no mention of value, simply saying, “The legacy of the Mercedes belongs to Spain.”

It is likely Spain went to all the trouble of fighting for this waterlogged hoard in court due to its value, not due to the treasure simply being a legacy rightfully belonging to Spain.

But, wait a minute. This is treasure trove dredged from the ocean floor. What kind of collector value are we really looking at ?

The first hint comes from a Feb. 27 Associated Press story. Within this story is the comment, “After two centuries under water, parts of the trove of coins are stuck together in big chunks, sometimes in the very shape of the chests or sacks they were originally stored in, said Milagros Buendia, part of the specialized team that went to Florida to get the booty.”

The AP story continues that “Spain will now set about classifying and restoring the 594,000 coins and other artifacts involved before it figures out how to display them for the public.”

The word “restoring” is the key, a word that likely goes over the head of the average potential buyer of such coins. This is part of the reverse psychology that has been applied many times when someone is publicizing a hoard of coins in preparation to selling them to the public. (There is no indication at this time that Spain will seek to sell the coins.)

From Fox News

Human remains may be embedded in the mud of the North Atlantic where the New York-bound Titanic came to rest when it sank 100 years ago, a federal official said Saturday.

A 2004 photograph, released to the public for the first time this week in an uncropped version to coincide with the disaster's centenary, shows a coat and boots in the mud at the legendary shipwreck site.

"These are not shoes that fell out neatly from somebody's bag right next to each other," James Delgado, the director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

The way they are "laid out" makes a "compelling case" that it is where "someone has come to rest," he said.

The image, along with two others showing pairs of boots resting next to each other, were taken during an expedition led by NOAA and famed Titanic finder Robert Ballard in 2004. They were published in Ballard's book on the expedition. Delgado said the one showing a coat and boots was cropped to show only on a boot.

The New York Times first reported about the photographs in Saturday editions.

Filmmaker James Cameron, who has visited the wreck 33 times, told the newspaper that he had seen "zero human remains" during his extensive explorations of the Titanic. "We've seen shoes. We've seen pairs of shoes, which would strongly suggest there was a body there at one point. But we've never seen any human remains."

Full story...

By Skeeter Tower - Observer Today

What kid does not dream of finding a buried treasure ? We have a buried treasure right off the Dunkirk shore. Where is the fanfare and jubilation that something quite wonderful, something authentic, something with historic significance has been discovered ?

Richard Kullberg found the treasure. He is majority owner of North East Research, LLC, a company designed to locate and salvage shipwrecks.

With more than 40 years of underwater recovery in the Florida Keys, they came seeking the wreck of a British payroll ship sunk on Aug. 8, 1813 and said to be carrying $400 million in gold coins to pay the British troops. Today, this would translate to billions!

Kullberg is not a low-key kind of guy. When he returned to Dunkirk to pursue this discovery, he rolled into town in a Ferrari and a cigarette boat, armed with investment funds to get the job done.

He became known as "Cape Cod Rich" along our waterfront, referencing the connection to Kullberg's business endeavor in the early '80s when he started the first whale watch service out of Barnstable Harbor on Cape Cod.

It was a "no-brainer" for Kullberg, a Massachusetts native, who knew that for 35,000 years whales had come to this area to gorge on the krill released with the 11-foot tides.

Kullberg, a 1977 graduate of Harvard Business School, describes his business philosophy as "Shots on goal," (hockey terminology) which, quoting Wayne Gretzky, says: "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take," and, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

Full story...

By Joyce Russel - WJTV

Under the sometimes murky waters of Lake Michigan lies a mostly unexplored layer of Northwest Indiana history.

The lake is home to dozens of shipwrecks, each telling a story.

"They tell us a lot of things. They show us about our culture, commerce and about early transportation," said Rick Jones, state archaeologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

Looking at the Great Lakes as a whole, there are some 5,000 shipwrecks, said Brad Bumgardner, interpretive naturalist with the Indiana Dunes State Park.

"That's more than in the entire Bermuda Triangle," Bumgardner said.

About 25 percent of those shipwrecks lie within the waters of Lake Michigan.

Indiana's movement to preserve its underwater history began in the 1980s when salvagers attempted to raise the wreck of the J.D. Marshall, which sank in 1911 off the shore of the Dunes State Park. Federal and state laws followed in the 1980s, protecting the shipwrecks from salvage operations by imposing fines and imprisonment for looting and vandalism.

In 1983, then-state archaeologist Gary Ellis began researching and documenting the shipwrecks of Indiana for cultural purposes. That study included a survey of the Muskegon, which was heavily damaged in a fire in 1910 while at dock in Michigan City. The ship, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, eventually was towed into the lake and sunk.

Ellis' study identified and evaluated 14 shipwrecks, said Mike Molnar, of the DNR.

"We didn't do much since then," he said.

Last year the DNR received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Lake Michigan Coastal Management Program to initiate an Indiana Lake Michigan Underwater Archaeological Resource Project, Molnar said.

Full story...

By Grant Welker - Wicked Local

A century after the Titanic sank, the shipwreck at the bottom of the Atlantic still has its place in research and academia.

Just last month, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod released new detailed images of the wreck created during an expedition to create an archaeological map of the site, which can be seen online. One University of Massachusetts Dartmouth program includes a course on the Titanic and another undertakes advanced underwater research.

Robert Ballard, a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, is well-known as the first to discover the wreckage in 1985. The oceanography program at URI still uses some of the most advanced technology to study the seas.

“All of this kind of came out of the Titanic work that he did,” URI oceanography researcher Dwight Coleman said of Ballard, a colleague for 15 years.

Right now, URI’s oceanography program is working with a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, vessel in the Gulf of Mexico that is studying ocean ecosystems and how they’re faring two years after the BP oil spill. URI is helping them manage data, run day-to-day operations, and record and broadcast video.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, based in Falmouth, has been a major contributor to what the world knows about the Titanic.

Full story...