The possibility of naming a Lake Superior National Marine Sanctuary in western Lake Superior is the topic of this month's Iron County Citizen's Forum.
Ellen Brody, Great Lakes Regional Coordinator for the National Oceanographic and Atmosheric Administration, or NOAA, will be featured speaker.
Forum spokesperson Terry Daulton says the designation is eyed mainly for Chequamegon Bay near Ashland but the designation could extend east to Iron county. She says this potentially would be the first sanctuary in Lake Superior...
"....the purpose of these is not regulatory at all. It's to provide information and additional research dollars to an area and services to visitors who might be interested in visiting the sanctuary. Things like tourism, information, a visitor's center kind of function..."
She says the sanctuaries support coastal communities, economies and marine ecosystems. She says underwater resources like shipwrecks and archeological sites and underwater habitats are protected.
She says the sanctuary functions as a key research area.
Daulton says only one of NOAA's 14 designated sanctuaries is located in the Great Lakes. Governor Walker has submitted a nomination for a sanctuary in Lake Michigan. The Iron County Citizen's Forum is set for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Iron County Courthouse in Hurley. More information is available at 715-476-3530.
