The Keweenaw Underwater Preserve is a preservation area in the U.S. state of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. Located in Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

, it protects waters that lie offshore Keweenaw Peninsula

Keweenaw Peninsula

The Keweenaw Peninsula is the northern-most part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was roughly 43,200...

.

Keweenaw Point

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees the Keweenaw Underwater Preserve, calls the point of Keweenaw Peninsula a "catcher's mitt" for storm-beset Lake freighter

Lake freighter

Lake freighters, or Lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes. The best known was the , the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships. In the mid-20th century, 300 lakers worked the...

s and other boats in the southern half of Lake Superior. Numerous wrecks, overseen as part of this preserve, can be seen here and are the object of recreational dives

Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

.

One of the most recent large boats on the Great Lakes to be a total loss, the former United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 cutter Mesquite

USCGC Mesquite (WLB-305)

The USCGC Mesquite was a 180 foot sea going buoy tender . A Mesquite class vessel, it was built by Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. Mesquite's preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine...

, grounded off Keweenaw in 1989 and is now a diveable wreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

 in this preserve.

External links

• Keweenaw Underwater Preserve Michigan Underwater Preserve Council
  Michigan Underwater Preserve Council
  The Michigan Underwater Preserve Council or MUPC is a private, non-profit, volunteer driven organization that oversees activities relating to all of Michigan's Underwater Preserves...