Stellwagen Bank is essentially a sand and gravel bank at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. The geologic beginnings of Stellwagen Bank, more broadly located in the western region of the Gulf of Maine, stretch over a period of 25,000 years – with the estimated age of the bank being about 14,000-18,000 years. The creation of Stellwagen Bank lends itself primarily due to changes resulting from the arrival and retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which migrated from Canada, as well as changes in sea level. It has been suggested that at one time, Stellwagen Bank was an extension of Cape Cod. It is believed that Cape Cod was formed by the ice sheet. Geologic similarities between Cape Cod and Stellwagen Bank suggest that Stellwagen was formed the same way.

Origins of Stellwagen 2

For more information on discovery and features of Stellwagen Bank visit:

Discovery & Features of Stellwagen Bank 2

On October 7, 1992 Congress passed legislation reauthorizing and amending Title III of the MPRSA.  The legislation was signed into law on November 4, 1992.  In this legislation, Section 2202 designated Stellwagen Bank as a national marine sanctuary, formally establishing a sanctuary boundry.  Also included in the designation were provisions prohibiting mining of sand, gravel and other minerals, as well as administrative provisions relating to funding and management.  The naming of the bank also recognizes Congressman Gerry E. Studds for his efforts in education.

The creation of Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the twelfth marine sanctuary  in the United States was the culmination of over a decade of effort on the part of NOAA and the Center for Coastal Studies.

For more information on the designation and management of Stellwagen Bank as a national marine sanctuary visit:

Designation and management of Stellwagen Bank

Designation and management of Stellwagen Bank 2

42 deg.45'59.83"N x 70 deg.13'01.77"W (NE);

42 deg.05'35.51"N x 70 deg.02'08.14"W (SE);

42 deg.07'44.89"W x 70 deg.28'15.44"W (SW);

42 deg.32'53.52"N x 70 deg.35'52.38"W (WNW);

42 deg.39'04.08"N x 70 deg.30'11.29"W (NNW).

This area makes up approximately 638 square nautical miles (or 842 square statue miles). 

Presently, with the existing management plan, broadly, the following activities are prohibited:

"The following activities are prohibited within sanctuary boundaries: exploring for, developing, or producing sand and gravel resources; exploring for, developing, or producing oil and natural gas resources; discharging or depositing any materials; altering the seabed or constructing any structures on the seabed; moving or injuring, or possessing historical resources; injuring or harassing marine mammals, turtles or seabirds; incineration of any material from onboard any vessel; and transferring petroleum-based products between vessels."

Reference

In so far as specific regulations relating to diving activities on or near shipwrecks, only the following applies as part of Title 15, Chapter IX, Subpart C, Section 922.142(a)(4) of the Code of Federal Regulations, which stipulates that the following activities are prohibited: 

"Moving, removing or injuring, or attempting to move, remove or injure, a Sanctuary historical resource. This prohibition does not apply to moving, removing or injury resulting incidentally from traditional fishing operations."

For more information on the Sanctuary boundaries and management, please visit:

Sanctuary boundaries & management

Sanctuary boundaries & management 2

From December 1998 to January 1999, the Sanctuary held public scoping meetings to obtain comments on the status of the site management.  In this public scoping process, five main issues were identified: 

ISSUE 1: Alteration of Seafloor Habitat and Ecosystem Protection

ISSUE 2: Impacts of Human Activities on Marine Mammals

ISSUE 3: Condition of Water Quality

ISSUE 4: Lack of Public Awareness

ISSUE 5: Effective Enforcement

These issues are described here:

And in the State of the Sanctuary Report:

In the documents emerging from the 1998-1999 public review, there is no mention of human visitation (through scuba diving) of shipwrecks in Stellwagen Bank as a main issue.  The perceived threat to maritime heritage resources (shipwrecks) has been grossly overestimated.

In June of 2004, the Sanctuary released a “Marine Heritage Recources Action Plan (AP)” that proposes new regulations pertaining to shipwreck exploration in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.  This plan was assembled by various “working groups” charged with addressing a particular set of issues.  The AP was assembled, and then reviewed and approved by the Sanctuary Advisory Council (SAC).  It is from this document that the draft management plan will be derived.

The details of this Action Plan are discussed in a separate section of this website, but at minimum this AP strictly regulates access to shipwrecks in Stellwagen and imposes narrow measures of control with regard to access of sites classified as “public.”

For more information please visit: Stellwagen Management Plan Review:

The Sanctuary will release the draft management plan for public comment by holding a series of public meetings. Following these meetings, the Sanctuary and the National Marine Sanctuary Program will review the comments and make necessary changes before issuing the final management plan. The review and commenting period is only 60 days – this is very little time to coordinate a response.

It is during this time that the diving community must respond to the draft management plan and urge reconsideration of the proposed regulations relating to shipwreck exploration and diving activities in Stellwagen Bank.

For more information visit:

Reference 1

Reference 2

Quite simply, the Sanctuary is regulated in the following way:

Allowed Activities:

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve encourages and promotes recreational activities within the designated boundaries. These activities include:

• Diving: charter, recreational and commercial
• Fishing: charter, recreational, and commercial
• Boating: recreational and commercial
• Research
• Education

Prohibited Activities:

Users of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve are prohibited and therefore restricted from conducting or organizing others to conduct the following:

• Recovering, altering, destroying, possessing or attempting to recover, alter, destroy, or possess an underwater cultural resource (shipwrecks, prehistoric sites, piers and other structures)
• Altering lake bottom, such as drilling or dredging, constructing or abandoning any structure including signs etc. relating to underwater cultural resources except as accidental result of:
• Anchoring vessels
• Traditional fishing operations
• Minor projects that do not adversely affect underwater cultural resources

Additional info at Thunderbay

The proposed regulations for Stellwagen are extreme and prohibitive of access except under the most stringent conditions. This is unacceptable.