Oriskany Tagging

[DiveBandit]

An idea I always had was to attach a large slate of lime stone to a wreck/reef. Let people scratch name/date stuff into that. Include a sign that tells divers why the slate was installed and asking them not to scratch the wreck itself and why. Yes, you would probably have an idiot or two that still scratched the wreck, but to scrath the wreck in that case would be to label yourself as an idiot for all to see.

Unfortunately, I've never been able to figure out a cure for the wreck pilfering thing.

 

[Oriskany Divemaster]

At the risk of sounding like I'm a pro-tagging zealot, it all grows back nicely. Since I dive the wreck most every week, I see the stuff come and go. Most of it grows back in a couple of weeks. Lately it's been pretty quiet out there, but I think the majority of it happened in the late summer, early fall when the goo was prime. I'll keep the interested parties posted. Meanwhile.....ORISKANY DIVEMASTER WAS HERE.

 

[sandersondiver]

People are already labelling themselves as idiots whether they are scratching their names in the wreck or if they are taking things off of the wreck. This wreck is going to be here for many decades to come, provided people don't strip the wreck down to the framing. Are you going to take the deck plating if it starts coming up? It's not being used right? Why not take it?
I think that everybody should know the history of the ship and know that many people of died onboard, including the fire that was much bigger than the Forrestal's fire, which also killed many people.
Respect the ship that is supporting our sport and bring dollars into our communities. This ship served our country proudly for many years. Let's not disgrace it by scratching our names into it, or robbing it of it's "spare parts."

 

[MSilvia]

I was on a local wreck dive recently, on a real wreck as opposed to an artificial reef. The wreck happened roughly 60 years ago, and the twisted and broken wreckage of a fairly large cargo ship is strewn across the pinnacle it grounded and broke on at depths ranging from around 40 to 90 feet.

One of the divers that day found a big, ugly, black rock, and seemed really excited about it. I didn't understand why until we were back on the deck and he had started hammering on it with the pommel of his dive knife. As the concretion crumbled away, it exposed what was, when properly cleaned, a very nicely machined brass artifact.

I fail to see any harm in what he did, but some folks on the board seem to feel he's a villian because of it. Maybe I'm missing something, but then, maybe I'm just an idiot.

Of course, wiping biofilm off an artificial reef is something else altogether. I'm not sure wiping the slime off a wreck constitutes "disgracing it", but it's not doing the budding ecosystem any favors.

 

[dmdoss]

Oh here goes another heated thread.

 

[super opus]

a real wreck i could see taking artefact's, but this wreck was put down there to promote life why kill life when its not not needed??

 

[evensplit]

It's very simple. Oriskany is a memorial to the men that served on board, many of them lost their lives over the years. Many of the former crew members are my friends. Without the veterans' support, we could never have gotten her deployed as a reef.

Don't deface her or take anything off of her. There are some that may be ignorant and not care, but there are many of us that do care.

 

[D_B]

dumpster .. I don't think your going to be able to make a case for removing stuff from an intensionally sunk ship to sell ... just because your the first person to come along to find it, and that's brazen enough to do so, doesn't make it OK .. you thought it was OK because it was just a bunch of nuts and washers but ... it's a REEF .. who are you to decide what you can take and sell? ... who next is going to decide what they're going to take?

Please don't' take anything from an artificial reef

 

[frankc420]

Why argue? People are going to do what they want.

I would say most of the people writing stuff on wrecks don't know it's causing damage. I'm also sure most people wouldn't think about doing it, until they see that someone else already did. Like someone said before, monkey see, monkey do.

The simplest way to stop this is for the divemasters on the boats to tell the story of the wrecks that they take people to and to ask them to not touch the wreck and tell them why. Slapping someone's hand for something that they didn't know was wrong doesn't help, tell them why it's wrong, and it does.

 

[bentex]

Thats it! Im stealing the Oriskany and bringing it home. Not a piece, not a part, not some biofilm, but the whole damn thing! But I promise not to scratch my name in it.

It will be here in Dallas if anyone wants to see it.