History Meets Technology in Shipwreck Alley

July 10, 2017 9:01 AM

The 448-square-mile Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary protects one of America's best-preserved and nationally-significant collections of shipwrecks. Ninety three wrecks have been located within the sanctuary, but historical records indicate more than a hundred shipwrecks have yet to be discovered. Through the spring and summer of 2017, researchers will conduct a four-part expedition to test new tools for finding wrecks. One technique is the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) equipped with advanced sonar, with which a team from the Great Lakes Research Center has been able to provide ultra-high resolution acoustic images of historic shipwrecks located in the sanctuary. Map: Shipwrecks of the Thunder Bay region.

More about the sanctuary and the wrecks within on their Youtube channel:

Shipwreck Alley

Shipwreck Tour of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Or take a 3D tour of some of the Thunder Bay wrecks.

More about the sanctuary and its preservation and interpretation work:

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary: 2013 Condition Report

Managing Michigan’s Underwater Heritage: The Past, Present, and Future of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (pdf)

posted by mandolin conspiracy (8 comments total)

And yet when I collect shipwrecks, I'm labelled a "kraken" and a "terror of the deep."
posted by cmoj at 9:11 AM on July 10, 2017 [6 favorites]

Huh, TIL that Michigan has a Thunder Bay 1000km and two Great Lakes East of the only Thunder Bay I'd ever heard of, which has its own shipwrecks.

Way to be confusing people who name things!
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:25 AM on July 10, 2017 [7 favorites]

Popular Ethics: "TIL that Michigan has a Thunder Bay "

Uh... I just learned that today too, as a Michigan native, who just spent the last week visiting the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (Whitefish Point and the Sault Ste Marie headquarters building)

So don't feel too bad there Popular Ethics
posted by caution live frogs at 9:59 AM on July 10, 2017 [4 favorites]

Not to be confused with Thunder Island.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:06 AM on July 10, 2017

I was thinking "I though Fathon Five was the only nationally protected area underwater" but then yes, I too discovered The Other Thunder Bay.

Superiour it's said, never gives up her dead, but apparently Huron isn't too hot about it either.
posted by GuyZero at 11:12 AM on July 10, 2017

As the man said in the song, it's how "Lake Huron rolls..."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:03 PM on July 10, 2017

But yeah, I was initially confused about how it was possible to have a NOAA sanctuary in what would have been Canadian waters had it been the other Thunder Bay!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:05 PM on July 10, 2017

I, too, grew up in Michigan, am a geography nerd, and yet did not realize that we have our own Thunder Bay.

huh
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:09 AM on July 11, 2017