Are the various Ships-to-Reefs organizations dead?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Jake

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
499
Reaction score
89
Location
CA
# of dives
200 - 499
Not sure if this forum is the right one for this, but here goes anyway:

I was reminded today of two different California ship-to-reef projects that were slated to be sunk in Wreck Alley off San Diego.

One was the "B-39 Foxtrot" Russian submarine, and the other was the HMCS Annapolis. While trying to find info on those, I came across an article about 6 other ships that might be sunk at some point.

All of those would have been handled by California Ships to Reefs. However, their URL (californiashipstoreefs.org) is dead. So, I then went to the International site at shipstoreefsinternational.org, and while that site is still up, it seems to be pretty neglected.

Does anyone know if anything is happening with projects anywhere (not just California)?
 
Not sure if this forum is the right one for this, but here goes anyway:

I was reminded today of two different California ship-to-reef projects that were slated to be sunk in Wreck Alley off San Diego.

One was the "B-39 Foxtrot" Russian submarine, and the other was the HMCS Annapolis. While trying to find info on those, I came across an article about 6 other ships that might be sunk at some point.

All of those would have been handled by California Ships to Reefs. However, their URL (californiashipstoreefs.org) is dead. So, I then went to the International site at shipstoreefsinternational.org, and while that site is still up, it seems to be pretty neglected.

Does anyone know if anything is happening with projects anywhere (not just California)?

I heard they are trying to get another one done in Nova Scotia Canada but don't have much for details.
 
In the US, all the artificial reef programs are run by state agencies, aside from Florida which is generally county run. I worked with the Texas program, which was probably one of the best funded in the country due to oil and gas donations from the rigs to reefs program. But most of the rigs are gone, and along with it big funding. We did reef a big ship a few years ago (Kraken), but I don't see funding for additional big projects like that in the future. Most of the current projects I'm aware of are nearshore fishing and fish habitat reefs.

I don't think CA ever figured out how to get out of their own way for their rigs to reef program, so I'm assuming all of their funding comes from grants and donations. I would imagine that donations for artificial reefs are pretty minimal during a pandemic.
 

Back
Top Bottom