- All right. Welcome, everybody.
We're pleased to have you join us today for the National Marine Sanctuaries webinar series.
This series is hosted by the NOAA office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
And we find that it's a great way for us to connect with formal and informal educators
and other interested parties to provide you with the educational and scientific expertise,
as well as the resources and training needed to support ocean and climate literacy
in your classroom or in your facilities with your target audiences.
So just a little bit about today's webinar.
All attendees will come in to today's webinar in listen-only mode.
You are welcome to type in questions into the control panel on the right hand side of your screen.
This is the same area that you can let us know if you're having any technical difficulties.
Our team will be monitoring the questions box for the technical issues and questions ,
so that we can provide them to the panelists following the presentation.'
We will be recording this session,
and be sending the recording out to all registered participants.
And it'll be available on our webinar archive page, which we'll share at the end.
We like to provide this presentation,
or, sorry, this webinar series,
to also find a way to connect all of you to our National Marine Sanctuary system.
So, these are America's underwater treasures or underwater parks
and we call them National Marine Sanctuaries.
This is a network of underwater parks around the United States
that encompass more than 600,000 square miles of ocean and Great Lakes waters.
From Washington State to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron to American Samoa.
So this map, for some of you that are familiar with the sanctuary system,
The map is new because we have just recently designated
one of our newest national marine sanctuaries.
And it's been nearly 20 years since we've had the opportunity to recognized a new area
as having specials and national significance.
So now, Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary is featured as a blue dot
on this system map.
And then we have an additional site, Lake Ontario, that is being considered for designation.
So this the system, this network, consists of 14 national marine sanctuaries
and two marine national monuments.
The triangles are the monuments. So we've got one in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands,
the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
And then Rose Atoll Monument is part of our larger American Samoa sanctuary.
But it's important to note
that National Marine Sanctuaries help protect the ocean and Great Lakes.
So we actually have what is called the National Marine Sanctuaries Act.
that is an act of Congress.
And these areas, these special areas, have been set aside for national significance
for a wide variety of reasons.
It could be for ecological reasons,
it could be related to the conservation value of a site,
or even the historical, cultural or archaeological reason for one of these sites.
And through our act, we are mandated as trustees of the National Marine Sanctuaries
to do research and monitoring, education and outreach,
to have active management, all with the intent of resource protection.
We actually like to call these National Marine Sanctuaries living classrooms.
This is a place where visitors can see, touch, and learn about these special ocean areas.
So now, we'll go ahead and introduce ourselves.
My name is Claire Fackler, and i'm the national education liaison
for NOAA's Office of National marine Sanctuaries.
I have my colleague here, Hannah McDonald.
She's an education specialist for the same program.
So I'll be here in Santa Barbara running the webinar and Hannah, today, will be doing the Q&A
following today's presentation.
And we'll be wrapping up today's webinar.
With that, I would like to introduce our special guest today.
We have Paul Orlando, which most of us with NOAA affectionately call him Sammy.
So when you hear Sammy, I'm referring to our presenter, Paul Orlando.
So, Sammy has been with NOAA since 1983,
and with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries since 2002.
So during his time with sanctuaries, he has served as chief for the Conservation Science Division,
as well as chief of staff for strategic planning.
So this work has enabled him to be a part of programs and to engage with communities
throughout the entire sanctuary system.
However, for the past six years,
Sammy's been co-located with the NOAA's Chesapeake Bay office
found in Annapolis, Maryland,
where he's taken the knowledge gained to serve as NOAA's liaison to community partners
in support of the designation of the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary.
So, with that, I'm going to hand the controls over to you Sammy, and let you take it away.
- Okay. We okay here, Claire?
- [Claire] Yeah!
- Wonderful, wonderful.
Well thank you so much. Thank you, Hannah.
And thanks to all of you for taking time out of your day to be with us.
I know some of you have a dinner plate, yeah, and some you know taken into your lunch right now.
Or even on your drive home.
But, you know, all the same. Thanks for making time.
We have a we have an exciting story, a happy story, that we're looking to share with you, today.
I stand here, of course, representing NOAA and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
But, I also stand here on behalf of some incredible government partners
with the state of Maryland, in particular, the Maryland Historical Trust
and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources,
as well as Charles County government, in Maryland.
These three entities are the joint managers,
the co-managers of our newest National Marine Sanctuary.
I also stand here on behalf of, literally, dozens of community champions
who have had the vision for what this could be in terms of benefits, community, and resource.
And not only had that vision, but they've been the engine to make this happen.
So, thank you to all of them. We'll certainly talk about that, along the way.
Okay
Claire? There we go. Okay.
All right. sometimes Sammy--
Yeah. Sometimes Sammy and technology aren't always one of the same.
So this is beautiful, lovely, Mallows Bay Park
along the tidal Potomac in Charles County, Maryland.
At the top of your screen is Quantico Marine Base.
And just to the top, far right of your screen would be Washington, DC,
about 30 miles upstream from this location.
This is the gateway to the newest sanctuary. This is where most people will enter the sanctuary.
This picture was taken on November 9th, just a couple of weeks ago
And it was the celebration of government partners and community champions
and congressional delegations and staff, that have come together over the last five years
to help make this happen.
So, the sanctuary designation was official on September 3rd of this year.
So roughly two months later, a couple of weeks ago, we had this celebration event.
I'm going to tell you something about the special nature of this place.
The history, the heritage of what makes it nationally significant.
I'm also going to tell you something about the process, the five-year process
that we have undergone together, as a group. to help make this happen.
And I'm going to tell you something about the programming, the community-based programming.
That's to a large degree the government partners and the community have organized,
they have facilitated and helped to make happen.
And so, you're going to learn a lot of things.
Each of these things could be a briefing on to themselves.
But, you'll come away with a little bit of a knowledge on a lot of subjects.
But, I promise you this. That the number one way for you to really learn
about the special nature of this place , and form your own connection,
is to get out into your sanctuary.
This is true anywhere around the country and it's no different, right here.
The pace that's allowed by the kayaks is absolutely the best way to capture the spirit
of this wonderful area.
So in terms of geography, again, you take a look at the inset out there to your right.
We're literally or 30 miles downstream from Washington DC.
To the right is the state of Maryland.
To the left of the rivers, the state of Virginia.
The waters, themselves, are primarily under the authority of the state of Maryland.
The red box that you see is 18 square miles.
It is the Mallow's Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary.
it is an 18 square miles, the second smallest sanctuary in our system.
I give you this aerial shot, this remotely-sensed shot.
At the top of your screen is Washington, DC.
Again, kind of showing the proximity to our nation's capital.
And, of course, to no other Department of Commerce and lots of other federal agencies.
Just below that is Alexandria, Virginia
and that will become important later on the story of Mallows Bay.
The red dot that you see there is the gateway. It's the boat ramp at Mallows Bay Park
into the end of the sanctuary.
But all this is green. Everything that you see to the east of Mallows Bay Park is in fact forested .
And so the rural nature, and the history and heritage of this area kind of collide
and come through the gates there at Mallows Bay.
From an aerial shot, again, looking up River on the tidal Potomac.
Washington, DC would be at the top of the screen.
This is the rural part of Charles County that you're seeing from this drone image.
I'll point out a couple of things to you on this map.
One of which is that you can actually see the remains of many of the World War 1 era ghost fleet wrecks.
The wooden wrecks that are out there.
You can see this flying International Airport.
You can see it with drone imagery. You can even see it from vistas among small bluffs.
Right there, Mallows Bay Park.
So makes these resources just about as accessible to just about anyone
among all the ones that we have across the National Marine Sanctuary system.
I'll also draw your attention to what appears to be shoreline where I'm waving my pointer
over here. But these are World War one era wrecks.
They are now being transformed by Nature and they are their own little islands.
Their own little ecosystems. But they have an important role to play, as do all the wrecks
whether the submerged or emergent
in terms of providing the structure that's habitat, to make this one of the most ecologically sensitive
and important areas in the Potomac River and, perhaps, in parts of the Chesapeake Bay.
You get down a little closer and this is what you see.
This is still a drone image, but you can begin to see the architecture the outline of these vessels
almost 300 feet in length, 40 feet on a beam.
And you can see how nature really is transforming part of the ches-- of the Potomac River.
If you're into the architecture, this is part of what this does.
A kayak allows you to get up close and personal to really float alongside
of almost a hundred of these wrecks.
We encourage people to come out here at low tide.
There's about a two and a half foot tidal range on a daily basis,
but winds and water levels and other things do tend to affect that.
But at low tide you can really begin to see the emergence of the ghost fleet
and get up close to the architecture of these vessels.
This picture was also taken on November 9th.
Again giving you the the scaler of a kayaker against the 300-foot ghost fleet remains.
Again, this is the best way to experience and kind of feel the spirit
and the history and mystery of this entire area.
When you get down closer, you see a lot of the long shoreline,
you can see how the structure is being transformed into wetland areas.
You can see why this would be important habitat both above and below the water.
We've seen a lot of the trees a lot of the vegetation that grows.
But clearly one of the other important aspects of the ghost fleet
is the structure that provides for seagrass trapping sediments allowing seagrass to grow.
These become important nursery areas.
This is kind of trophy bass tournament locations because of the structure of the wrecks
that are out there. Both on the large mouth point of view, on the left.
as well as, this is an area, one of the two most important areas in the Chesapeake Bay
for striped bass, locally known as rockfish.
The other important areas off is on the Eastern Shore, along the Choptank.
But primary nursery grounds for the prize striped bass, in this area.
And then also, you see the birds.
This is these are definitely fan favorites.
When people are out there, they never disappoint.
The Eagles roost on top of the the wrecks themselves.
Osprey build nests and generations have come back.
And then the Blue Heron. They're kind of sign of spring.
I kind of nicknamed the lovebirds. They come back right around Valentine's Day every year.
But the nature that thrives because of these wrecks can't be underestimated.
So that's what you see when you're out there.
And what always is a question for people is, why?
You know, how do they get here? Why does it look like this at this stage?
And, you know, the story goes back, you know, to World War one.
And in the early part of the war to end all wars the German subs were basically torpedoing
and sinking a lot of the Allied vessels on that side of the ocean.
We were drawn into the war in 1917 and at the request of the Allies.
The biggest thing they wanted from us were boats.
Boats, boats, and more boats.
And as a country that wasn't necessarily shipbuilding nation, that was tough to do.
But basically the Emergency Fleet Corporation was formed.
And they set out to build, what Woodrow Wilson president at the time declared would be,
1,000 of these vessels in 18 months.
Again, that's some mammoth undertaking at any time.
But particularly at a point in time where you are not necessarily a shipbuilding nation.
This did become a national priority, a nationwide priority,
and more than 50 shipyards where either spun up or greatly expanded.
and they exist all over the country.
And these shipyards were in fact building of these ships.
We have communities around the program, around the country,
that consider themselves constituents of the new sanctuary
because they finally remember and actually celebrate a lot of these shipyards
and their role in helping to design and build these.
A lot of the ships came out of the West Coast.
Most of them in Mallows Bay came from Oregon and Washington.
As did the very first one in North Bend came from Oregon.
So as a major national priority, this was a major jobs program and the community development.
So not only did you spring up the the shipyards, but you needed all the industry that supported these.
You need the lumber mills, you need the smelting operations.
And when you bring in all these people to work like this,
you also start and expand the social experiment about community development
that's needed.
They need grocery stores, they need churches,
they need all the things that a typical, you know, family and household would need in these areas.
So. you really see a transformation of a lot of the coastal areas, in particular
associated with the building of these ships.
So the war ends about two years later.
We didn't quite get to a thousand, but I think we can all agree that the war ending early is a good thing.
About a little less than 300 of these were built.
And they all have their own unique stories.
The one at the bottom was built in 17 days. that's the SS Aberdeen.
Built in 17 days. And try doing that under under federal contract at any point in time.
Innovations were coming online at this point in time.
Again, with submarine warfare, the idea was to paint what's called "razzle-dazzle" on the on the vessels
to try to confuse the direction and the speed of a lot of these vessels.
And a lot of that painting and was tried out as part of the building of these World War One era vessels.
Perhaps one of the biggest accomplishments of the country is on July 4th in 1918,
before the war ended, we launched a 95 of these vessels at different places around the country
all on the same day.
Again, quite the undertaking and more to the story, in the back story,
the more you know about this, the more impressive and important it actually becomes.
So along with building all these ships, you actually need people who are going to be the builders,
the operators, the maintenance crew, and the like.
Rightfully so, the Merchant Marines have a lot of notoriety in World War two
for their service and for the fact that so many of them perished in the line of duty to the country.
We've always had merchant mariners in this country,
but under World War One,
when you're rapidly expanding the building and operations of these ships,
you need to have a mechanism in place for some type of consistency.
And so, maybe the formalizing and the rapid expansion the Merchant Marines
kind of came into the room as part of World War One.
So the war ends, and these ships are built, or at least a certain number of these ships are built
And at some point in time, and I'm skipping over part of the story, but at some point in time,
the federal government wants to try to recoup some of the money that were spent on these vessels,
so they've sent it out to bid. It was picked up by Western Marine and Salvage,
which was located in Alexandria, Virginia, which is why I pointed it out to you.
and Western Marine and Salvage brought gathered the boats from different places around the country
and brought them into Widewater, Virginia, and then in the Mallows Bay
for the purpose of starting the ship breaking operation.
So this is what they look like, roughly in 1925, tied up in Mallows Bay.
From there, Western Marine and Salvage was the first of three different ship breaking operations.
Theirs lasted for just a short period of time in the 1920s,
and then during the 1930s,
the local community on both the Virginia side, but especially on the Charles County side
participate in what we affectionately call the wildcatting period.
This is the depression.
So the local communities gain rights to go out and be able to salvage and sell
a lot of these a lot of these metals.
And from what we understand, during the Depression era,
this represented about 15% of the per capita income for Charles County residents
during that point in time.
During the third ship raking operation in the early 1940s,
the now-defunct Bethlem Steel, in Baltimore, Maryland, came in
and tried to salvage what remained of these.
But again, that lasted a short period of time.
So, three different ship breaking operations, after these ships were built,
kind of led to the burning of these things in the waterline-- to the waterline
and then positioning them exactly bow to stern in Mallows Bay,
kind of the way you see in the diagram there, to the right.
So what you see when you're paddling now
is kind of the remnants of the three different ship breaking periods
and about seven 70 or 80 years of mother nature working on that since the ship breaking periods.
So the ghost fleet gets all the attention. that gets the notoriety.
It's what people want to come out and see when they paddle.
But welcome to the most photographed vessel in Mallows Bay.
And it has actually nothing to do with World War One
and nothing to do with the ghost fleet.
This is the Accomack. This was a former navy vessel. It turned into a car passenger ferry boat.
It was the last of the car ferries that went across the Chesapeake Bay
and then was put out of commission.
And then one day, magically, in about 1972 or 73, under the cloak of darkness,
somebody snuck this in the Mallows Bay in there it sits.
So people are fascinated by it.
One of the two things that we say about it is that it really provides a scaler.
It's really above water.
You can this it's about 280 feet long to 290 feet long.
So it's roughly the same size as all the vessels that are sitting, the wooden vessels, in Mallows Bay.
The other thing it does for us, it reminds us that when we talk about this being a sanctuary
that's about history, cultural, and maritime heritage,
that there are things beyond the ghost fleet.
And the ferryboat lines, in particular, were the mode of transport, up and down the Potomac River,
and throughout the Chesapeake Bay throughout the 1800s.
and we have remnants of the ferry boat docks and structures and other pieces
embedded along the shoreline and out in the waters of the sanctuary.
And, of course, we're helping to interpret a lot of that.
So also,
getting beyond the ghost fleet,
we know and have learned quite a bit about what we call the maritime cultural landscape of the area.
This area is in fact a time capsule.
As a time capsule of history that goes back 12,000 years to Native American tribes,
to state recognized tribes in Maryland, one in Virginia,
that claimed this as their ancestral lands.
DoD there are four different DoD, primarily navy facilities, along this part of the Potomac River.
They have been there for about a hundred and sixty years,
and the way they've interacted and interfaced with the resources and the people in communities
of this area is equally valuable in terms of capturing that, interpreting that, and of course working with them
to help tell that story.
And then of course the commercial Waterman.
This was the place to be throughout the 1800s and even into the early 1900's.
The commercial fisheries in the Potomac River was absolutely booming.
We even have sturgeon or had sturgeon.
We have the remains of lost caviar processing plant along the banks of Mallows Bay.
So this broader maritime landscape is part of what we intend to help inform people about
and help interpret and help, of course, conserve and preserve a lot of these a lot of these features and assets.
So when NOAA opened up the new process to designate, or at least to nominate,
new National Marine Sanctuaries, they turn to communities
and said if you have a natural environment or a history and heritage site of national significance
that you want us to consider, here's the process you need to follow.
The Chesapeake community was ready and in 2014 they submitted the nomination,
which turned out to be the very first successful of the nominations.
And they jump-started the process toward designation that would take five years.
The community gave us an 18 square mile boundary.
They did so because this area, the ghost fleet and the related maritime heritage assets,
are on the National Register of Historic Places.
That's one of the criteria that are used to determine and validate national significance.
A couple of years later, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Mallows Bay
and this area a national treasure.
This is the first and, to my knowledge, the only portion of a National Marine Sanctuary
to receive that validation.
So what do they want?
Well, they wanted co-management.
They wanted NOAA and the state water so they wanted the state of Maryland and Charles County
to be joint managers in the sanctuary.
They wanted it focused on maritime and cultural heritage,
much of which I just highlighted for you,
as the primary purpose.
But then the secondary purpose is also to promote recreation tourism and economic development.
What they did not want is they did not want this to be a natural resource site.
And in fact, to this day, and all throughout the designation process,
all natural resource management remains with the state of Maryland,
it remains with the Potomac group of Fisheries Commission,
and it is not part of the sanctuary resource under designation.
So they asked for an awful lot, but they were also narrow and what they asked for.
And they also, a lot of them, had kind of this knowledge of other sanctuaries around the program
including the last one to be designated almost 20 years ago,
which is Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron.
That is and has been the model home. It's been the vision for this Chesapeake community since day one
and Jeff Gray, on the far right, was kind enough to not only support this effort all along,
but to host a number of folks up there so they could see firsthand and talk to the community.
In my mind, this community and the sanctuary are totally inseparable,
And that, to me, is the vision for this area along the Potomac.
So jumping ahead and skipping over an awful lot of public process,
which there's an extensive amount of public process to designate a sanctuary.
if you're Jerry Seinfeld fan, you know yada yada over certain certain details
and some yada yada-ing over a lot of the federal process
to get to the end point of the dedication on September 3rd.
And what that does that in and getting that end point,
it says that we've completed the federal process.
And part of that federal process includes an awful lot of consultation with all kinds of community groups,
all kinds of federal partners, all types of constituents that have a stake in the waters of the resources
out there.
And it involves at least two different public processes
and public scoping and comment periods along the way.
What I found extremely exciting and energetic about the local community
associated with the Mallows Potomac effort, as they didn't do just the minimum.
They recognized kind of that federal process,
what needed to be done in terms of working with local communities,
and getting this through the federal process.
But they became super proactive right from day one.
And from day one there has been just a ginormous amount of media. Local media
national media, international media, that I think the good folks in Charles County would say
help to put Charles County on quite a bigger stage.
Bringing in this national brand put them and in this bigger spotlight.
But just about every imaginable kind of television program and science program,
news program, tourist programs, have been out to Mallows Bay
over the last four or five years.
And we've done some tremendous coverage.
And, by the way, getting coverage in the local media in the Washington DC area
shines a spotlight on what we call National Marine Sanctuaries,
whether they're here or anywhere in the in the system.
So it's a good thing to have these reminders so close to home.
They also set out right away on this whole idea of expanding recreation tourism.
There is a local outfitter, Atlantic Kayak, which is been a tremendous partner
in getting people out on the water.
There's a new concession now that has been spun up by the county, working with Atlantic Kayak,
to offer guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays at Mallows Bay Park.
And that's the big thing: trying to promote these local business opportunities.
The owner of Atlantic Kayak, kim DeMarr, told us this year that they were so busy,
she actually had to stop she had to start saying no, Sammy, no more paddle trips out here,
I'm booked. I'm booked solid.
And that's I think a good thing. That's what we what we want to see happening out here
in terms of local business. And you can see some of the local marketing that's starting to happen
at the Charles county level and building that up and using same best practices
that occur at the maryland, of the state of maryland level, for branding purposes.
As such, you're starting to see REI, the particular, runs a lot of trips down to Mallows Bay.
Big groups of people that come out of Baltimore, Annapolis and the DC area.
They come down here they run a river Pallooza event. Multiple sites up and down the Potomac River,
which includes Mallows Bay and the ghost fleet every single summer.
So a lot of commercial enterprise that is starting to find their way out here.
And because we're starting to see this kind of uptick,
one of the things that we wanted to do is we wanted to provide some additional
information about weather and water conditions.
National Marine Sanctuary foundation, work with the state of Maryland, particular Maryland DNR,
to buy and to place a buoy out in the Potomac River just adjacent to Mallows Bay.
Real-time weather and water information for commercial and recreational interests.
And, of course, there's a scientific and a educational element
to it that we're already starting to take advantage of.
In the same way, you're getting people out there,
and if they don't if they aren't lucky enough to go with Kim and Atlantic kayaker with REI,
we've now provided, we being the partners,
have provided a new interpretive water trail through Mallows Bay.
So some of the more emergent wrecks that are out there
now have a little buoy that sits outside and you have a laminated water trail map
that you can take out there with you and know something about, you know, what you're looking at.
A big deal. And what we're working on now and just about finished,
again, through partnership,s National Marine Sanctuary foundation,
Chesapeake Conservancy, and a bunch of others, working on an audio trail guide
that we can change up until more of the history and heritage stories, right from your iPhone.
Along with this, like all the other sanctuaries,
resource management needs good baseline characterization
and some repetitive modeling-- monitoringvthrough time.
And the applications and technologies.
This place has been a magnet for places like Duke Robotics, marine robotics at Duke University
comes in and gave us some incredible to see centimeter resolution of all the resources,
natural and heritage, and Mallows Bay. That was supported by Maryland DNR
and the Maryland Historical Trust.
But again, incredible coverage that we use now to understand the status
and, one day, maybe the change associated with how these vessels
and the associated vegetation interact.
Along the way, the community got very excited about educational programs.
They saw this as being essential to what they wanted
and they put science and education squarely into the nomination
and promoted different activities throughout the course of the five years.
We have been working with NOAA's ocean Guardian program, Seabury not far and Naomi out in California
started up this program.
We now have two schools in Charles County,
one of the high school level, one the elementary school level,
that under that do stewardship activities at their own school that translate into communities.
We have jumped from there, to working with the National Association of Black Scuba Divers,
diving with the purpose junior scientists in the sea to work in these high schools
where we have a high percentage of underserved communities
that are now working toward getting into the water for the very first time.
And not that we necessarily expect them to dive and Mallows Bay,
but it's a chance to learn about science, about physics, and, quite honestly, about yourself
and gain some motivation and confidence about getting underwater
and taking that first breath.
And we this is one of my favorite programs to be talking about
of anything that we've been associated with the last five years.
And I can't thank these guys enough for this Diego and this group.
But being so close to DC also does this.
That's Admiral Gallaudet in the middle of the picture.
He got in the water, actually, was high-fiving students in the diving well.
But again, for people who don't get a chance to go out to all the National Marine Sanctuaries
and experience the types of programming whether its science, education
or any kind of resource protection, getting a half a day and getting them to Mallows Bay
to do activities just like this,
I think shines light on all the communities and all the programs
around the sanctuary system and what we do there.
As part of what we do with with these students, we again work with partners all over.
We bring them out to Mallows Bay and we expand the cultural component,
we expand the environmental literacy, we expand the development and introduction and use
of new technologies.
We strongly believe new technologies are critically important as the way forward
and a lot of what we're doing is actually being built into curriculum
and jointly adopted. Thank you very much by Charles County of by the Board of Education.
One of the very first things the community did after the nomination,
they got the community involved.
They offered a clean up five years ago.
This is in sponsorship with the Alex Ferguson foundation, a non-profit, further up the Potomac River.
They have about 700 cleanup sites in the month of April, up and down the entire length of the Potomac.
We're told that ours attracts more attention than any of the 700 sites.
We've had upwards of about 150 volunteers that has come out
and collected upwards of about 5 tons of trash out of the Potomac River
needing dump trucks and roll-off dumpsters to take care of it.
But again, this is the whole idea is that the community didn't want to just do the minimum.
They believed and what the benefits were they wanted to prove what the management plan
would be doing when the sanctuary came in, jointly with the state and with the county.
And I'm very fond of saying it's almost like we've been running the sanctuary
at the same time that we have been trying to designate it.
And I really believe strongly that this demonstration by the community of not just their desire
and their steadfastness and wanting to see this done.
But, they are actually jumping in and making this happen.
And I think what you're going to see, going forward, is a lot of what you've seen to this point in time
And I think everybody agrees: that's pretty wonderful.
So the other thing that we get to do and I've talked about this a couple of times,
every sanctuary offers something different and Location Location Location Location Location.
Downstream 30 miles from Washington, DC and from NOAA Department of Commerce.
We get incredible opportunities to showcase not just Mallows Bay, but the partnerships.
And we get to do this with congressionals.
We get to do this with house Natural Resources, Senate Appropriations Committees,
these kinds of committees that are important the things that
happen everywhere throughout the federal government, and, of course, within sanctuaries
and within NOAA.
So having the opportunity to get people out here, to tell them about these types of partnerships,
and, quite honestly, I am thrilled that we get to do this with our partners.
It's great to have the partners out there.
They tell most of the stories.
I just facilitate the the Kayaks on and the opportunity.
So having all of us speaking as one voice because we've been doing this for five years,
I think it's pretty powerful and it speaks to the same kinds of things that happen everywhere,
and national marine sanctuaries.
So about my last slide, here, is about where I started.
I can't say "thank you" enough, different ways, to the community champions.
I know you can't read all of these and I encourage you to go back online,
you know, when this is over.
But these groups of people are just absolutely sensational.
The way that they had a vision, the way they carried forward that vision,
the way they demonstrated what the sanctuary would be,
and quite honestly they've all signed on beyond this point in time.
And that's what makes this so powerful. We're not starting from scratch.
We're starting from what they developed, the foundations they created for us,
and, of course, our government partners at the state, the county, our fellow federal agencies
and our congressional delegations have been absolutely central to this, all along.
So I'm going to--I believe--stop there
because always a good way to stop by saying thank you to everybody.
But I strongly encourage you to come on out and see Mallows Bay,
come experience this, capture the spirit, form your own connection
just like you would in anywhere other special places around the country.
That's it for me, Claire.
- Awesome, Sammy. Thank you so much for that introduction to our country's newest
National Marine.
We appreciate that.
So, Hannah, go ahead and there's a couple of questions that have come in that--
- Right. Thank you, Claire.
Yeah, so we have gotten a few questions and some great comments
about how impressive your work has been with Mallows
and how excited the community is to continue to clean up the waters that they love so much.
Many thanks go to you too, Sammy. in our question feed.
The first question that we have is: Do the sunken ships fall apart?
And do the pieces float to the surface?
and this is coming from Michelle.
Well the ships do fall apart. There's no two ways about that.
They're wooden. They've been subject to the natural environment for a hundred years.
Even five years ago, there was more of the ships in the water and emerging from the water
than there are now.
They will break down, over time, and they will be transformed by nature, over time.
You do find pieces of them.
Maybe floating in the water,
but you do find some of the metal pins and other things laying on the beach.
After a good wind adventure or water surge event.
- Great, thank you.
That is the only real question that we have so far submitted.
So this can be another reminder that in the side panel of the control panel.
There is a section called "questions" and you can type them in, there.
You can also raise your hand in these control panel
and we can unmute you to have you ask your question vocally to Sammy.
Going off of what you just said though, I'm curious as to
if you do have a weather event and something does wash ashore
what is someone to do with those pieces of a wreck
that are now within Mallows Bay National Marine Sanctuary?
- Oh, I sure wish my colleague Susan Langley with Maryland Historical Trust
was the one answering this question.
But they really are part of the historic record of the site.
And one of the things that we do need to do
is certainly set up kind of that community-- that communication mechanism
either through NOAA, through the state, through the county,
to identify that and to, you know, turn it over to the historical trust for the right type of keeping
for that.
And not they're not, unfortunately, souvenirs to be to be taken home.
- Good to know.
- I have a question.
In some of the photos I saw from the designation event a few weekends ago,
and you did have one in your presentation. The native peoples?
Can you speak a little bit more about that?
Sure. Again and the lands belonging to the Native Americans predate the sanctuary, for sure.
And what we've been really excited about is the opportunity to learn more about that.
I know, I am particular benefit greatly from every single interaction with the tribes.
In particular, the Piscataway Conoy tribe of Maryland has been there since day one.
They were part of the nomination team that submitted the 2014 package.
But since then, they have participated and so many of the community based activities
and led different types of activities with students with adults with community members.
And I just I run over, and I try to listen and learn every time I get a chance.
At the designation event, they offered a spiritual blessing for the site and for the resources
which I thought was pretty special as part of the the designation ceremony itself.
And as well as, they tied and had many of the VIPs and that were their tie medicine bundles
to the cedar trees located at the periphery of Mallows Bay.
The cedar tree is special to the Piscataway Conoy
and the medicine bundles are, again, and offering a spiritual blessing
that hang for a period of time beyond the event ,itself.
So I think just an incredible addition to the way that we describe beyond the ghost fleet.
This whole concept of maritime and cultural heritage, to have them involved, tell them a story,
and being the ones running the activity. That's absolutely the way it needs to go.
- Alright. Thank you for sharing more details.
Sammy, we have a question from Joanne,
and she's interested in hearing, again, how the management of a new site will occur
in regards to NOAA, Maryland, and other institutions.
That's a great question.
There's some of that information that's found in the designation documents.
But it also is something that requires NOAA, the state, and the county to come together
and revisit a lot of this going forward.
I think a lot of people will tell you that Mallows Bay and the sanctuary has been unique in a lot of ways.
One of the unique ways, I think
this may also kind of translate itself into-- it has to do with these partnerships .
Having three joint managers is, I believe, unprecedented in the sanctuary system.
You know, two from the state in Charles County.
But there is just a wealth of expertise that each of these groups do for their own mission purposes
that overlaps directly with a lot of the management plan and management of the sanctuary, itself.
So we really have this amazing almost Stone Soup model that we're bringing to the table.
And what we'll be looking to do is figure out the best way to fill in some of the more critical gaps.
Not just the state managers but so much of what I showed you, in terms of programming,
gets done by this wonderful cadre and growing cadre of partners
that come in and do some of the science, the education, interpretation for us.
So, you know, it's almost a nice problem to have in some ways
and I think was one that we look forward to sorting out.
But again, we're not starting from from Ground Zero.
We have a running start based on five years joint programming.
I think that's going to go into that discussion and ultimately a decision.
- Awesome. Thank you for that explanation.
We have another question coming in from Sandra,
who, also, is very excited to visit.
And she is wondering if there are any water and river archaeology excavations happening
or being planned.
- Oh boy. Again man's got to know his limitations. And this is one of them.
One of the many for me.
But where I'm not aware that at least through the sanctuary,
and through the sanctuary management plan that we're looking do anything like that.
Groups do come down. There are along the adjacent shorelines to Mallows.
There are, you know, shark's teeth that people like to come down and in fine.
But in terms of doing archaeological, you know, digs and the like,
that's not necessarily what we're set up for
or promoting as part of this particular sanctuary.
- You know, hey, I would suggest-- I just messaged Susan Langley who's participating.
Sammy, would it be helpful if we unmute her?
- It's always helpful to unmute Susan.
- So Susan, should we give that a try, Hannah?
We'll go ahead and unmute Susan and see if-- go and take care of that.
Susan, see if you can chat with us and share some of these details with the group here on the webinar.
Susan, are you there?
Aw, shucks. Sometimes this experiment doesn't go as planned.
Alright well, Susan, send another question to us if you're ready in a few minutes to be unmuted.
But for now, we'll shut her back down.
And maybe you can just read what she was typing in, initially.
- Yeah, Susan had recognized a program that was done through a student a few years ago
that is a wreck taking program that uses QR codes.
So that's something that could be explored for Mallows to do, was her suggestion.
And we do have another question coming from a teacher, a science teacher, in Maryland.
Her name is Carol and she is wondering if drones can fly over the area.
- The short answer is yes.
They can. I don't think that the county has any, in fact, I know the sanctuary doesn't have any
type of management or prohibition of that.
The biggest obstacle that is associated with flying drones is are those for DoD facilities
that are located nearby. And in particular the one directly across the river, which is Quantico.
There's the shared gun marine Navy facility over there.
There is a notification process that needs to occur with Quantico in order to get permission to fly.
And what are otherwise restricted waters.
And when you do fly, it's always aligned the sights and can't be sending it out too far away
from the shoreline. But they are legal. You're able to do it.
And some of the wonderful imagery we've gotten from Matt Macintosh and sanctuaries
and Duke Marine Lab views and an NPR.
I'll use that same drone technology.
- Yeah, those images were great and I saw some of them in your presentation, today.
We have a great question coming from DeeDee.
She is wondering what your vision for Mallows Bay is for the future
and what new features or resources would you anticipate for the area?
- Well, I think our vision going forward is, I think, a little bit of at a time.
We want to continue to build on a lot of the community-based programming
that we have underway.
The interpretive'components that promote the recreation the tourism and economic development
are things that we want to do. And, of course, they can only be done with partners
and in cooperation with the state and with the county.
I think that's clearly fundamental to what we want to see done.
At the same time, you know, this is a very rural area
and we want to be very sensitive and very respectful
of the-- I don't want to say pristine-- but it certainly is underdeveloped
and quite nice in terms of this conservation assets.
So we want to be respectful of the way that this gets filled out
and, of course, doing this with the state, with county, with partners, will help to ensure
that we're kind of building in the right kinds of local business opportunities
and we're not transforming this into another, you know, national harbor right there in the DC area.
But I I think it's more about the recreation the interpretation.
I can't tell you how excited I am about the educational programs down there
and how the community responds to these more ocean guardian
and more of the diving with the purpose and junior scientists in the sea
with the National Association of Black Scuba Divers.
I think that's what we're looking to do.
At some point in time, we'll have discussions about a NOAA presence.
What does it mean, you know, to have signage and and an office
and maybe one day a visitor center or an education facility of some type there.
So slow steps. Maybe not quite as slow as if we were starting from the very beginning.
But I think the vision at least for the next five years or so look a little bit like that.
- Great. And to go off of that we have a question coming in from Sam
who is wondering how to get involved with activities
like the cleanup that you showed earlier in the presentation.
- Yeah, boy, we try our best to try to promote those.
We have this kind of core mailing group that I send out to all the time.
But we put information in newspapers and on radio, signs up all over the county,
we get it on web pages from all the partners, we try to use social media,
to make people aware of some of these opportunities.
But, honestly, I think it's another one of these growth areas for us.
It's kind of catches catch can right now. we haven't come together
and talked about how to make that a little bit more efficient and effective.
But we want people to come out and help out with the cleanups.
We want people to participate in some of these partner events.
Get into your sanctuary and take advantage of the resources and the opportunities
that go along with being part of that place.
So, we will do better and it's part of this presence idea
that we will begin to promote a lot more publicly.
Well, that actually might-- Susan also pointed out, this is kind of interesting, that
Marilyn has developed with NOAA a marine debris management plan
that defines a process for training people to differentiate shipwreck remains from pieces of the wharves
and modern materials.
So it sounds like there could types of like citizen science opportunities that
people like Sam can potentially get involved with, beyond just the cleanup.
And as I would suspect that as the NOAA presence
becomes more full at Mallows Bay-Potomac River sanctuary, that
down, way down the road we may, with a superintendent there may be an education coordinator,
research coordinator, and others staff that can then start to build out these more robust programs.
and we actually--
- Absolutely, Claire.
- Yeah we recently heard from a teacher in the area that is just thrilled with Mallows Bay
and she's already written a lesson plan.
So, we're just starting to have conversations with her and look at her materials
and see if she wants to volunteer and make those available once we go through our clearance process.
But, there's lots of different ways to get involved
and reaching out to Sammy and others and NOAA it's a good start
until we have a more formalized structure.
- I agree, Claire and thank you we are we are just beginning to have our own internal conversations
about these citizen science.
it's definitely on the table and through the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and others
we are certainly the Potomac River keeper.
We're certainly making some inroads and getting some of that kind of jump started.
so that's that's another great way for people to get involved
- Well that is all of our questions that have been submitted so far
So if you have any questions that you are eager to ask Sammy
and can think of them within the next day, feel free to email them to us and we'll try to get them to Sammy
and back to you.
So, this does conclude today's webinar. Thank you for attending the webinar series, today.
As I mentioned earlier, we really want your feedback.
So, your questions can be submitted and your feedback submitted, as well
to sanctuaryeducation@NOAA.gov
This webinar will also be archived and linked on our sanctuary education site,
which the link is on this slide here.
And following this webinar, all attendees will receive a PDF copy of a certificate of attendance.
This provides you document documentation for one hour of professional development
for today's presentation.
This certificate was actually developed from feedback from one of the webinar participants.
So we do take into account what you reply to us with.
That being said, there will be a short evaluation that asks questions
for you to answer following today's presentation.
This will take you about 3 to 4 minutes and pops up immediately.
so we greatly appreciate any feedback you are willing to share.
We are currently building out our webinar series schedule.
The next exciting webinar is called Sinkholes to Stars: Exploring Microbial Ecosystems in
Lake Huron Sinkholes.
and it is about a exploration and exciting exploration in partnership with NOAA's
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
And they're going to discuss what their exploration means to the look looking for extraterrestrial life.
So, not only are we exploring Lake Huron, but also discussing possible extra terrestrial life,
which is very exciting.
And with that being said, that's December 5th. Note the change in time, it's at 7 p.m. Eastern 4 p.m. Pacific.
Thanks again to Sammy for a wonderful presentation informing us about the newest
National Marine Sanctuary in Mallows Bay.
All of the exciting community work and all of the exciting maritime heritage.
It was very great. So thank you, Sammy
And thank you all for taking the time to join us.
Don't forget to take the brief survey at the end of today's webinar.
It's very important to our team. And with that being said, that concludes today's webinar.
- Great. Thanks, Hannah. Thanks Sammy.
- Thank you, guys.