America's First Marine Sanctuary Protects a Civil War Shipwreck

The first national marine sanctuary in the United States protects a shipwreck. On January 30, 1975, the wreck of the USS Monitor was designated the first of the marine protected areas that now make up the National Marine Sanctuary System.

The USS Monitor. Credit: NOAA.

A ship that changed naval warfare

The USS Monitor was the prototype for a class of Civil War ironclad, turreted warships, and it changed both naval technology and ship design in the nineteenth century. It was built in 110 days.

From warship to reef

The Monitor sank in 1862 and lies southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Since then it has become a productive artificial reef, and the sanctuary's boundaries protect the wreck.

Watching the wreck

Most research in the sanctuary has documented the shipwreck as an archaeological site. NOAA scientists are now also interested in the water quality and marine environment around it. A NOAA data buoy installed in the sanctuary in 2006 lets scientists and the public monitor the weather and sea conditions 24 hours a day.

Protecting it

Sanctuary management focuses on:

• preventing further deterioration of the wreck
• recovering important parts of the ship and its artifacts
• protecting it from damage by human activities such as anchoring and fishing

Access is generally limited to scientific research done under a NOAA permit, though special-use permits allow non-research visits to the historic ship.

Sources

Based on "What was the first national marine sanctuary to be designated?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.