Divers worry sanctuary will be expanded

HATTERAS, N.C., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Divers say they are worried the 3-decades-old Monitor National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., will be expanded.

The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday that although most of the Monitor, an ironclad ship sunk during the Civil War that is protected by the sanctuary, has been recovered in federal diving expeditions, there are plans to further restrict the area.

"I'm totally against any more limited access and the inclusion of any more wrecks -- that includes World War II wrecks," John Pieno, a local dive business operator, said Thursday at a public meeting about the plan. "If we can't shipwreck dive, it's a detriment to our economy. The status quo is fine with us now."

The sanctuary is about 230 feet down in the Atlantic Ocean, about 16 miles off Hatteras. It surrounds the wreck from the surface to the seabed in a column of water 1 nautical mile in diameter.

The Monitor sank in a storm on New Year's Eve in 1862. The vessel's remains were discovered in 1973 by Duke University scientists.