Credit: NOAA
In June 2024, Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary was designated as America’s 16th national marine sanctuary.
Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary is America’s 16th national marine sanctuary and the third in the Great Lakes.
The area encompasses 1,722 square miles of eastern Lake Ontario waters and bottomlands adjacent to Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga, and Wayne counties in the state of New York.
The sanctuary is intended to protect maritime assets and provide new opportunities for research, education, recreation, and maritime heritage-related tourism in local coastal communities along Lake Ontario, according to NOAA.
The sanctuary contains an array of nationally significant underwater assets, including archaeological sites, shipwrecks, and submerged aircraft.
Many of the shipwrecks in the sanctuary were discovered by recreational scuba divers and shipwreck explorers. Shipwrecks of the area span more than two centuries of maritime history.
The lands and waters of Eastern Lake Ontario also hold significance to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who populated the area thousands of years ago.
NOAA will co-manage Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary with the state of New York
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