Keys Mooring Balls; What's Going On?

[Dan G]

I've heard from a few FL Keys dive ops that the mooring balls on the Thunderbolt have been repeatedly cut off by fishermen making the dive inaccessible indefinitely. Another op told me the mooring balls for the Bibb are gone, but did not directly attribute that to fishermen.

What's going on down there in the Keys? Do fishmen specifically fish the wrecks and don't want divers on them? Is it the boat traffic they don't want? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Whitrzac]

The war between fishers and divers rages on...

 

[-JD-]

Assuming the veracity of malfeasance by fishermen ...

Considering the history of Frogmen, the fishermen would be well advised to play nice.

 

[FreqFlier]

USCG Duane - same story, no mooring balls for the last 2 or 3 weeks

 

[Belzelbub]

It’s not unique to the Keys. There definitely seems to be a war brewing between rod and reel fishermen and divers. I guess they blame divers for their inability to catch fish. Divers might have an effect on the bite, but somehow my wife manages to catch fish while I’m diving nearby.

 

[Eric802]

Who installs the mooring balls? State agency, local dive shops?

 

[Manatee Diver]

Who installs the mooring balls? State agency, local dive shops?

NOAA

 

[Wookie]

NOAA

Not on the T-Bolt....

 

[Wookie]

But on this old thread you said they do.

No more diving on the Thunderbolt by Dive Charters?

I've trying to get this wreck off my bucket list for years. I'm headed to the Keys for my every 3 month or so dive trip. Now I can't even find a charter boat to take me there because the mooring has been off the wreck for several months now, and there's apparently no plans to restore it. Does...

scubaboard.com

My information may be quite dated. The moorings on the T-bolt were privately maintained, and set about 20 feet below the surface, specifically to avoid this type of conflict. Fisherman can’t cut off the buoys if they can’t get to the buoys.

I have tied to the T-Bolt many many times but that was 10 years ago. If I said that NOAA was planning to take over the moorings, that must have been the plan. If they did, it would make sense. If anyone really cares, I was quite close to members of the buoy team and can make a phone call and find out.

 

[Johnoly]

Who installs the mooring balls? State agency, local dive shops?

Been many years, but on the southern gulfside, private boats used metal pony kegs or soda syrup kegs that have those metal hand-holds on the top ring. As divers we always find anchors with lots of brand new rope to save and they tied a couple of long sections together. Swim one end down, loop a rail/etc on the wreck/site and swim it back up. Tie it to the keg handle and also thread the other up-line thru the same handle, but don't tie it and give that end to the boat. The boat cleats the rope and slowly pulls away sinking the keg while the diver signals it's 20ft depth & to hold position. The diver swims down to siamese the 2 lines together. Boat releases it's end and the diver completes the holding knots, plus leaves 30ft of line with a large fishing weight that becomes the mooring attach loop on return. Captain watches the sonar for a huge bright beep and marks the spot. If you are doing several drops on the site or long deco it saves on 4 hours of burning gas($$) from doing a live drop and also insures the divers don't miss the drop or bad anchor drop in low viz. I've never seen it done where I dive on the SE coast, too busy.