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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 118 / Wednesday, June 23, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
mooring buoys are not present. During this period, NOAA will also work with stakeholders to explore the concept of permitting certain prohibited activities e.g., allowing divers to attach mooring lines directly to some shipwreck sites.
All other regulations will become effective as described in the DATES
section above.
III. Summary of All Final Regulations for WSCNMS
With this final rule, NOAA is implementing the following site-specific regulations for WSCNMS.
A. Add New Subpart T to Existing National Marine Sanctuary Program Regulations NOAA amends the National Marine Sanctuary Program regulations at 15
CFR part 922 by adding a new subpart subpart T that contains site-specific regulations for the WSCNMS. This subpart includes the boundary description, contains definitions of common terms used in the new subpart, provides a framework for comanagement of the sanctuary, identifies prohibited activities and exceptions, and establishes procedures for certification of existing uses, permitting otherwise prohibited activities, and emergency regulation procedures.
Several conforming changes are also made to the national sanctuary regulations as described below.

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B. Sanctuary Name The sanctuary name is Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary WSCNMS.
C. Sanctuary Boundary NOAA designates a 726 square nautical mile 962 square mile area of Lake Michigan waters off Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, and Kewaunee counties of Wisconsin as WSCNMS. The sanctuarys western/shoreward boundary is defined by the Low Water Datum as defined by the International Great Lakes Datum, 1985 IGLD 1985 as an elevation of 577.5 ft above sea level, while the lakeward boundary is drawn to include all known shipwrecks between the shipwreck America to the north and shipwreck Northerner to the south. The sanctuary extends approximately 16 miles offshore at its greatest extent. Within this boundary are 36 known shipwrecks, including 21
on the National Register of Historic Places. The harbors and marinas of Two Rivers, Manitowoc, Sheboygan, and Port Washington are not included in the sanctuary boundary, nor are federally authorized areas channels. These are channels that have been dredged by U.S.

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Army Corps of Engineers adjacent to the ports and harbors. The detailed legal sanctuary boundary description is included in section 922.210 and the coordinates are located in 15 CFR part 922, subpart T, appendix A.
A map of the area is shown in the FEIS on page 4, and can also be found at https sanctuaries.noaa.gov/
wisconsin/.
D. Definitions NOAA is including a site-specific definition of sanctuary resources for the WSCNMS to include only the underwater cultural resources found in this area in accordance with the purpose of this designation. The definition does not include biological and ecological resources of the area. Creating this narrow, site-specific definition requires NOAA to modify the national definition of sanctuary resource in the national regulations at section 922.3 to add an additional sentence that defines the sitespecific definition for WSCNMS at section 922.211a. This is similar to the approach taken for other national marine sanctuaries, such as Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, that do not make use of the full national sanctuary resource definition. The WSCNMS definition of sanctuary resources, located in section 922.211a1, means all prehistoric, historic, archaeological, and cultural sites and artifacts within the sanctuary boundary, including all shipwreck sites.
The term shipwreck site is further defined as any historic sunken watercraft, its components, cargo, contents, and associated debris field.
This rule also incorporates and adopts other common terms defined in the existing national regulations at section 922.3. One of the common terms adopted without modification is National Marine Sanctuary or Sanctuary, which means an area of the marine environment of special national significance due to its resource or human-use values, which is designated as such to ensure its conservation and management.
E. Co-Management of the Sanctuary To enhance opportunities and build on existing protections, NOAA and the State of Wisconsin will collaboratively manage the sanctuary. NOAA
establishes the framework for comanagement at section 922.212 and will develop a Memorandum of Agreement MOA with the state to provide greater details of co-management. NOAA and the state may develop additional agreements as necessary that would provide details on the execution of sanctuary management, such as
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activities, programs, and permitting programs that can also be updated to adapt to changing conditions or threats to the sanctuary resources. Any proposed changes to sanctuary regulations or boundaries will be jointly coordinated with the state and will be subject to public review as mandated by the NMSA and other Federal statutes.
F. Prohibited and Regulated Activities 1. Injuring Sanctuary Resources The regulations for WSCNMS prohibit any person from moving, removing, recovering, altering, destroying, possessing or otherwise injuring, or attempting to move, remove, recover, alter, destroy, possess or otherwise injure a sanctuary resource. This prohibition supplements existing Wisconsin laws that prohibit damaging shipwrecks. Wisconsin State statute Wis. Stat. 44.47, which has been in effect since 1991 and is related to removing or damaging shipwrecks, currently applies to the area and will continue to apply to these resources after sanctuary designation.
2. Grappling Into or Anchoring on a Shipwreck Site The regulations for WSCNMS prohibit the use of grappling into or anchoring on shipwreck sites to protect fragile shipwrecks within the sanctuary from damage. To provide the public adequate notice of shipwreck locations, NOAA
will prepare and make available sanctuary maps with known and suspected shipwreck sites. Shipwreck sites not listed on maps i.e., new discoveries as they occur are considered sanctuary resources and the prohibition on anchoring and grappling still apply. The final management plan includes activities related to surveying the sanctuary area and locating additional shipwreck sites. As appropriate, NOAA will update the maps as new shipwreck sites are found.
Because NOAA seeks to promote public access, while also ensuring sound resource protection, an initial focus of the sanctuary management plan will be the installation of permanent mooring systems at priority sanctuary shipwreck sites. The moorings will provide a secure, visible, and convenient anchoring point for users, and eliminate the need for grappling.
NOAA intends to publish guidelines on best practices for accessing shipwrecks when mooring buoys are not present.
An example of a best practice could include instructions on using a weighted line and surface float to mark a wreck for divers to descend and ascend. This weighted line would not be
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