Out of the Ashes: How the Tragedy of September 11 Left Its Mark on the National Marine Sanctuary System
Updated September 10, 2025
"When Americans lend a hand to one another, nothing is impossible. We’re not about what happened on 9/11. We’re about what happened on 9/12." Jeff Parness, 9/11 Survivor and Founder of New York Says Thank You
Every generation has turning point moments, those events that are marked indelibly in our memories and our shared history, that define before and after moments in our lives. The bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The assassinations of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. The Apollo moon landing on July 20, 1969. The loss of the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 26, 1986. Twenty-four years ago this month, we witnessed the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, the event we now call 9/11.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, eight people boarded Flight 77 bound for the adventure of a lifetime. They were headed to Santa Barbara, California to participate in a National Geographic Photo Camp in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, sponsored by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. Washington, D.C. sixth-graders Bernard Brown II, Asia Cottom, and Rodney Dickens; their teachers Hilda Taylor, Sarah Clark, and James Debeuneure respectively; and National Geographic employees Joe Ferguson and Ann Judge left the airport excited for a fun experience to combine art with science.
James and Rodney represented Ketcham Elementary School; Sarah and Asia, Backus Middle School; and Hilda and Bernard, Leckie Elementary School. Rodney, Asia, and Bernard were headed to Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary to explore, hike, kayak, and participate as part of the National Geographic Photo Camp. These young students would be sharing their experiences with children all over the nation. Instead, those who loved them—who had left them excited at the airport only hours before—learned the terrible truth when their plane was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.
In the moments, hours, and days afterward, our office was faced with questions that had no easy answers. How to reconcile such an unthinkable tragedy and the new world in which we found ourselves in that after moment. How to honor the memory of those school children, teachers, colleagues, and the nearly 3,000 other lost lives on that tragic day in our nation’s history. How to ensure that something good and life-affirming came out of a hate-driven terrorist attack. We found two ways to do so: naming a new research vessel and creating Ocean for Life.
Research Vessel Joe Ferguson
Our vessels are vital to our operations, as platforms for at-sea research, education, enforcement, and exploration. When the first research vessel after 9/11 was obtained, there was universal approval to name it for Joe Ferguson, who had been so crucial for the success of the joint Office of National Marine Sanctuaries/National Geographic Society Sustainable Seas expeditions. As the director of education and outreach for the society, Joe was well-known and liked by sanctuary staff from across the system, a trusted partner in the Sustainable Seas expedition including its two-week visit to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary in 1999.
On Feb. 19, 2002, the sanctuary dedicated R/V Joe Ferguson, a 41-foot vessel originally belonging to the U.S. Coast Guard, as its new research vessel. At the dedication ceremony, Reed Bohne, at the time the superintendent of the sanctuary, said: "The staff at Gray's Reef felt it was important to name the vessel in Joe's honor in recognition of all he has done to educate students about the marine environment and America's ocean treasures.” After seven years of bringing scientists and educators to sea, carrying out diving operations, and maintaining mooring buoys, the first R/V Joe Ferguson was retired.
In 2009, a new vessel, a 41-foot catamaran, was given the same name, and served the sanctuary well for 15 years. "Since its dedication, the R/V Joe Ferguson (decommissioned) provided an essential platform for the operations we conduct at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary," said Stan Rogers, sanctuary superintendent. "Gray's Reef is a catalyst for scientific research in the South Atlantic Bight, and it is situated 19 miles from land. Our research vessels are critical tools scientists use to help us understand the ocean, the creatures that live there, and the pristine live-bottom habitat that the sanctuary protects.
Ocean For Life
When the 9/11 Commission Report was released on July 22, 2004, it recommended that the U.S. “rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope,” and affirmed: “Education that teaches tolerance, the dignity and value of each individual, and respect for different beliefs is a key element in any global strategy to eliminate Islamist terrorism.” The sanctuary system had already begun planning just such a program as a tribute to and remembrance of the students and teachers lost on Flight 77, based on the field experience of discovery and adventure that was planned for them.
In summer 2004, two field study experiences co-hosted with National Geographic—like those planned for Rodney, Asia, and Bernard—were held when 12 high school student/teacher pairs from all over the country visited Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary in July and another dozen pairs went to Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in August. During each field study, the students heard from scientists and other experts and visited and photographed different habitats and wildlife associated with each sanctuary. Each field study ended with Youth Media Project presentations the students constructed from their photographs and narratives. The field studies proved that this student-centered, field-focused experience had potential to build connections among young people and provided the impetus for the next step—the creation of Ocean for Life.
Ocean for Life was designed as an ocean science and cultural exchange program for high school students from Western and Middle Eastern countries. Using national marine sanctuaries as living classrooms—including Florida Keys, Greater Farallones, Cordell Bank, Monterey Bay, and Channel Islands national marine sanctuaries—115 students from 17 countries and all over the U.S. came together for two-week immersive Ocean for Life field studies in 2009, 2011, and 2013. Together, they explored, filmed, photographed, and shared what they had learned, and built bonds with each other with the understanding that the ocean connects us all.
While Ocean for Life is not currently in operation, the impact it had on the lives of students who participated is felt across the globe, in the communities they each reside
Connection
We never fully recover from tragic turning point events like 9/11. Our pain eases and we find new ways to go on with our lives, but we also leave a part of ourselves behind, in three children who never had a chance to grow up, in three teachers who never returned to the classroom, in two colleagues who shared our passion for protecting and sharing our natural world. We do what we can to affirm what we know to be good in the world: kindness, empathy, compassion, care, and connection. We do what we can to remember, and live, the lessons that tragedies like 9/11 and global pandemics teach us about what is important in our lives.
Ocean for Life focused on connections: the ocean as a connected ecosystem, our connection to the ocean, our connection to each other. R/V Joe Ferguson was named for a man who believed education and travel were fundamental to a peaceful existence on and with this planet. In tribute to all those lost on Sept. 11, 2001, let’s remember we’re about the things that happened on Sept. 12, and after.
Editor’s Note: This story is adapted from an article originally written by former Senior Policy Advisor Elizabeth Moore in 2021.