The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation needs your help today to save some of America’s most important treasures—national marine sanctuaries.

When we think of the striking and patriotic refrains of America the Beautiful, we are reminded that America extends beyond the coastlines from sea to shining sea, and our sanctuaries will help protect special American ocean areas forever. Experiencing the ocean is part of the American dream.

Sanctuaries are tangible examples of what is great about America. They are open to all of us, managed for the people, by the people, in one of the most public processes in our democracy. And much like national parks are set aside as the best of America’s land resources, national marine sanctuaries are a showcase of our marine treasures. And a showcase of our American history: how many of us have ancestors who arrived here by crossing a sea? Our ocean is as much a part of the American tale as apple pie, backyard barbecues, and baseball.

Think about it: some of our greatest American novels take place in our waters: Hemingway’s Florida Keys, Melville’s Cape Cod, Steinbeck’s Cannery Row—all places now protected as national marine sanctuaries.

The USS Monitor, whose wreckage is the site of the very first national marine sanctuary, was involved in one of the great battles of the Civil War, and changed naval warfare forever.

The native Hawaiian people, caretakers for centuries of the coral reefs and whales of the archipelago, are a culture so intrinsically intermingled with the surrounding waters that we have two unique sanctuaries around this exotic American island chain.

The Farallones Sanctuary can be seen from the Golden Gate Bridge, an iconic gateway from one of America’s greatest cities to the ocean.

Even the rocky shoals of Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay combine environmental protection and American history, with a living museum of ships frozen in time by the cold water, left by shipping pioneers cutting corners in the race to build the nation during the Industrial Revolution.

We’re asking for your help in protecting, and even expanding our sanctuaries, by helping the Foundation show these amazing places to every American. From helping us renew the possibility of creating new sanctuaries to building visitor centers at existing ones, your support shows that America doesn’t stop where the waves break. You’ll also be protecting our fisheries, our ocean resources, and America’s heritage for generations to come.

This is a story we need your help to tell. Do we care about our national resources? Our actions today define the American experience of tomorrow. Will you help us motivate people to protect treasures they may never fully experience? For years people have climbed Denali, Pike’s Peak and other great heights in the U.S., but the peak of Davidson Seamount just 4,100 feet below the surface of the ocean is still unreachable by human divers. It’s hard to relate to something presently impossible to see. But that unexplored area, that sense of possibility and a bigger, better future: isn’t that what defines America?

It takes people like you, who have an abiding love for nature, a respect for history, and a spirit of adventure, to help engage everyone in saving these national resources. People who believe that these things—the delicate corals, the historical shipwrecks, the amazing plants and animals—are not just worth saving because they are an important part of the ocean experience, but an important part of the American experience.

National marine sanctuaries are yours. Your gift can make a real difference helping to protect them, and tell their story.

Thank you in advance for believing in their importance.