NOAA Ship Open House

Hi Everyone!

Our National Parks were created to conserve natural areas and historic areas, and to protect the wildlife that live in these places.  Did you know that we also have 14 National Marine Sanctuaries?  The word marine means that these areas relate to the sea.  Thus, our nation's marine sanctuaries are areas of protected waters that provide a safe habitat for endangered species, humpback whales for example,  and also protect historic shipwrecks still lying at the bottom of the ocean.  One of the National Marine Sanctuaries lies off the coast of North Carolina.  It is the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.  





The Monitor is a Civil War Ironclad ship that lies on the bottom of the ocean, 16 miles off the Cape Hatteras. Since its discovery in 1973, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has sponsored many expeditions to survey the wreckage and recover and preserve artifacts from the ship.  This year, the NOAA expedition is focusing on exploring wreckage from ships sunk by German U-Boats during World War 2.  Before I came here for the summer, I did not realize that a large part of the Battle of the Atlantic during WWll took place in the waters right off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The German U-boats that patrolled off the coast marked the closest the war came to America's mainland.  There are remains of Allied, Axis, and merchant boats  off the coast of Cape Hatteras to this day.
The NOAA ship that is exploring these wrecks occasionally docks in Ocracoke Harbor and held an open house last week.  I was able to attend the open house and have some photos to share.

Here is the ship they are using to explore the shipwrecks.

Divers explore the wreckage with high-tech cameras

It was really interesting to see footage shot underwater of divers exploring German U-boats and American merchant ships.  If you would like more information about the Monitor Marine Sanctuary, I have included a link to their website on the bottom of the page.  Check it out!



information about the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary