Photo courtesy of Bob Benway/Bateaux Below Inc. Bateaux Below divers do maintenance on one of the underwater signs at the "Land Tortoise - A 1758 Floating Gun Battery" shipwreck preserve in Lake George in an undated photo.
LAKE GEORGE -- About 200 sunken ships lurk beneath the surface of Lake George, and if a project goes as planned, one or two more of these may be made accessible to the diving public.
Joseph Zarzynski, the head of underwater archaeology group Bateaux Below, is working with the village of Lake George in using a grant to explore the possibilities of making parks out of underwater shipwrecks all over the state.
Three of these parks exist now in Lake George, he said, two of which were opened in 1993 and the other in 1994.
Since then, he said, he has been struggling to open up more.
The parks include buoys where divers can tie up, submerge and view the wrecks. Sites include underwater signs and guidelines for the divers.
"What it is, is to take shipwrecks that are in dive-able waters, shipwrecks that aren't too close to shore," Zarzynski said. "To buoy these sites so visiting divers aren't dropping boat anchors on them. So what we're trying to do is create really like an underwater museum."
The project will identify shipwrecks that are ideal for opening up as parks, looking for those with good visibility, that are not too deep and that are durable for intensive diving. They would then propose to preserve and prepare the sites to open as parks.
Zarzynski said the museum will foster shipwreck preservation, an understanding of the state's heritage and lake stewardship.
"So you're really setting up something to maximize the experience of going to dive that shipwreck and hopefully the divers who dive will come back," he said.
Part of the reason the village is leading the effort is because it had the first shipwreck preserve in the state of New York, Zarzynski said.
"With our experience, we are a potential model that other municipalities can look at and say, ‘Yeah this is good and this is bad,'" he said.
The state grant being administered by the village pays for the same exploration at sites in Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario off Oswego, Seneca Lake off Geneva, Lake Erie off Dunkrik and the bays and ocean off Freeport in Long Island.
While the wrecks in Lake George came from the French and Indian War, wrecks in other parts of the state include sunken freight ships and 19th-century wooden barges.
Zarzynski said the sites can help boost tourism in the state. He likened it to the state of Florida, where he said he recently attended a seminar on heritage tourism.
"They said in the state of Florida, heritage tourism generates $5 billion a year to the state, and they have a state-run shipwreck preserve system with over a dozen shipwrecks," he said. "The state of Florida really has their act together in terms of promoting their heritage and doing it in such a way that it attracts people to go to Florida to visit terrestrial sites, divers to visit underwater sites and things like that. There is a great potential here to bring in the future a lot of money to the state."
But those who don't dive aren't being excluded from the project.
Zarzynski said the project will also look into exhibits about the shipwrecks on shore for those who don't dive.
"The key thing is to get the shore-side component. Ninety-nine percent of the people are non-divers," he said. "They're going to be excited about this. After all, shipwrecks are sexy for divers and non-divers. We want to promote that and learn more about our heritage."
So far, Zarzynski said, village officials have hired a coordinator from Seneca Falls who will travel to the sites and oversee the work. In all, Zarzynski said, the project will take a few years.
"It is a bureaucracy, so it's slow-going," he said, "but we have just been rubbing our heads up against sandpaper trying to expand our underwater park."
Fuente: http://poststar.com/news/local/article_7e8c2fa6-f804-11df-9bad-001cc4c002e0.html
Joseph Zarzynski, the head of underwater archaeology group Bateaux Below, is working with the village of Lake George in using a grant to explore the possibilities of making parks out of underwater shipwrecks all over the state.
Three of these parks exist now in Lake George, he said, two of which were opened in 1993 and the other in 1994.
Since then, he said, he has been struggling to open up more.
The parks include buoys where divers can tie up, submerge and view the wrecks. Sites include underwater signs and guidelines for the divers.
"What it is, is to take shipwrecks that are in dive-able waters, shipwrecks that aren't too close to shore," Zarzynski said. "To buoy these sites so visiting divers aren't dropping boat anchors on them. So what we're trying to do is create really like an underwater museum."
The project will identify shipwrecks that are ideal for opening up as parks, looking for those with good visibility, that are not too deep and that are durable for intensive diving. They would then propose to preserve and prepare the sites to open as parks.
Zarzynski said the museum will foster shipwreck preservation, an understanding of the state's heritage and lake stewardship.
"So you're really setting up something to maximize the experience of going to dive that shipwreck and hopefully the divers who dive will come back," he said.
Part of the reason the village is leading the effort is because it had the first shipwreck preserve in the state of New York, Zarzynski said.
"With our experience, we are a potential model that other municipalities can look at and say, ‘Yeah this is good and this is bad,'" he said.
The state grant being administered by the village pays for the same exploration at sites in Lake Champlain, Lake Ontario off Oswego, Seneca Lake off Geneva, Lake Erie off Dunkrik and the bays and ocean off Freeport in Long Island.
While the wrecks in Lake George came from the French and Indian War, wrecks in other parts of the state include sunken freight ships and 19th-century wooden barges.
Zarzynski said the sites can help boost tourism in the state. He likened it to the state of Florida, where he said he recently attended a seminar on heritage tourism.
"They said in the state of Florida, heritage tourism generates $5 billion a year to the state, and they have a state-run shipwreck preserve system with over a dozen shipwrecks," he said. "The state of Florida really has their act together in terms of promoting their heritage and doing it in such a way that it attracts people to go to Florida to visit terrestrial sites, divers to visit underwater sites and things like that. There is a great potential here to bring in the future a lot of money to the state."
But those who don't dive aren't being excluded from the project.
Zarzynski said the project will also look into exhibits about the shipwrecks on shore for those who don't dive.
"The key thing is to get the shore-side component. Ninety-nine percent of the people are non-divers," he said. "They're going to be excited about this. After all, shipwrecks are sexy for divers and non-divers. We want to promote that and learn more about our heritage."
So far, Zarzynski said, village officials have hired a coordinator from Seneca Falls who will travel to the sites and oversee the work. In all, Zarzynski said, the project will take a few years.
"It is a bureaucracy, so it's slow-going," he said, "but we have just been rubbing our heads up against sandpaper trying to expand our underwater park."
Fuente: http://poststar.com/news/local/article_7e8c2fa6-f804-11df-9bad-001cc4c002e0.html
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