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[ music ]
National System of Marine Protected Areas
Protecting Cultural Heritage Resources
[ Roxane Stewart, Native Hawaiian,
chanting to the deities of the ocean]
Our marine cultural heritage is the story
of our nation's cultural connections to the sea.
This includes the places and resources used
by Native American cultures to sustain themselves
as well as the shipwrecks and other remnants
of our nation's long history with the sea.
Many traditional cultures lived near
our oceans and Great Lakes.
These waters supplied resources for
making medicines,
jewelry,
provided fur pelts for clothing and for trading,
as well as food for sustenance.
[ Voice of Louise J. Miranda Rameriz ]
It was a way of my ancestors.
They lived off of the ocean,
that's their homes.
They took care of it,
they only ate what was given to them,
what was provided.
They never took more.
Our money, the ancestor's money,
was made from Olivella shells.
So even the smallest shell had a lot of value.
New maritime practices and ways of living
were introduced to North America
when people began immigrating from other countries.
Ships traveled across oceans.
the Great Lakes,
and around the coastlines trading goods.
Naval ships protected the coastline
and the Great Lakes
from invasion and smuggling.
Fishing fleets supported thriving coastal communities,
and research ships plied the waters
for energy exploration and oceanographic data.
These hidden resources tell the story
of our nation's maritime history.
Over centuries, storms and shoals sunk many ships
and beneath the water,
embedded in the sea floor,
lie traces of our past,
our cultural heritage.
Today many of these areas are protected
by tribal, state or federal agencies.
We call them Marine Protected Areas
or MPAs.
They include:
shipwrecks and sunken aircraft,
archeological sites,
and sites of cultural significance.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
Marine Protected Areas Center works
toward common conservation goals for
our submerged cultural sites
and supports MPA managers
in their cultural resource conservation efforts.
Frequently, the best way to protect cultural resources
is by leaving them in place, or in situ,
and encouraging visitors to enjoy and learn from them
while preserving them for future generations.
Marine Protected Areas can conserve
and celebrate traditional and continuing cultural practices,
such as subsistence,
and ceremonial activities.
[ Voice of Louise J. Miranda Rameriz ]
I believe that Marine Protected Areas are
important to us as a people and if there
are protected areas, we're assured that
there will be that conservation, that survival.
[ Voice of Victor Mastone, Archaelogist ]
In the case of shipwrecks,
if you extract the resource,
how can it be appreciated?
It's that in situ preservation that protects
the resource and allows proper interpretation,
as well as proper visitation.
Saving our cultural heritage preserves
the knowledge of the people before us,
who have helped provide for and shape our future.
Please protect and keep sacred
our nation's maritime legacy,
as a gift to yourself
and to your children's children.
Learn more about preserving our
cultural heritage resources.
Explore MPA.gov.
End