Proposed Ship Reef off Galveston Texas

[Cyprian]

We want Ship Reef (HI-A-424)!

(And thanks for your work, Chairman and Sea_ledford).

News from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Artificial Reef Program Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/TexasParksAndWildlifeArtificialReefProgram

And for my fellow divers that do not use FB, a direct quote:

"Five Texas-based projects totaling about $18 million have been approved to begin to compensate Texas for lost human use of natural resources resulting from the Deepwater Horizon (BP) oil spill. This includes 3 artificial reef projects which will be advertised soon and will begin in 2015:

• Ship Reef (HI-A-424): The Ship Reef project will enhance fishing and diving opportunities by sinking a suitable ship at least 200 feet long to create an artificial reef approximately 67 miles offshore of Galveston. If the Ship Reef Project becomes unfeasible (for example, if an appropriate ship cannot be acquired) , an alternative reef project off Corpus Christi will be implemented instead. The Corpus Reef (MU-775) would increase the amount of concrete pyramids (artificial reef materials) at the existing artificial reef site approximately 10 miles north of Packery Channel. Funding: $1.9 million.

• Freeport Artificial Reef (Brazoria County): This project will increase the amount of reef materials in a currently permitted artificial reef site, the George Vancouver (Liberty Ship) Artificial Reef, approximately 6 miles from Freeport, placing concrete pyramids (artificial reef materials) at a water depth of 55 feet. Funding: $2.2 million.

• Matagorda Artificial Reef (Matagorda County): This project will create a new artificial reef site approximately 10 miles offshore of Matagorda County, Texas, through deployment of concrete pyramids (artificial reef materials) at a water depth of 60 feet. Funding: $3.6 million."

 

[tripntx]

We want Ship Reef (HI-A-424)!

(And thanks for your work, Chairman and Sea_ledford).

News from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Artificial Reef Program Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/TexasParksAndWildlifeArtificialReefProgram

And for my fellow divers that do not use FB, a direct quote:

"Five Texas-based projects totaling about $18 million have been approved to begin to compensate Texas for lost human use of natural resources resulting from the Deepwater Horizon (BP) oil spill. This includes 3 artificial reef projects which will be advertised soon and will begin in 2015:

• Ship Reef (HI-A-424): The Ship Reef project will enhance fishing and diving opportunities by sinking a suitable ship at least 200 feet long to create an artificial reef approximately 67 miles offshore of Galveston.

I agree, we want Ship Reef (HI-A-424)! It's the only one I'm interested in.

 

[Couv]

I've just found this thread.

Are there any updates to the above projects? Are any charter services gearing up to accommodate enough divers to make trips equitable for the operators and divers?

 

[divezonescuba]

How far is this from Freeport.

 

[sea_ledford]

I've just found this thread.

Are there any updates to the above projects? Are any charter services gearing up to accommodate enough divers to make trips equitable for the operators and divers?

The two nearshore sites are just about to be awarded to the contractors, and both of those are scheduled to be completed by August of next year. The ship site is going out for bid next, but no suitable vessels have been identified to date. We just ran across several options for 100-200' ships that might go somewhere else, but they aren't big enough for the 424 site. We also met with the USACE about the Sturgis when it was towed to Galveston for remediation and later scrapping.

For those of you that don't know, the Surigis was basically a floating nuclear power plant that supplied power to the Panama Canal zone in the late 50's and 60's (ish). It was de-fueled in the early 70's and has been rotting in Virginia since. We opted not to pursue the ship primarily due to the stigma of it being a nuclear vessel, but it also wouldn't have been a very exciting dive (it is basically a box on a bigger box. Have your 5 year old build a ship out of blocks, and there you go), and it would have cost a fortune to remove all the wiring.

We also had a potential lead on a drill ship, which I think would be awesome and would be a unique and historically relevant ship, but that seems to have gone nowhere. There was also talk of a couple mobile drilling units that by themselves wouldn't be significant enough, but if we placed them next to a larger ship could make the site that much more complex both from a habitat and diving perspective.

So... the search continues.

As for dive charters, I don't know. I've spoken to the Fling (since we do our monthly monitoring trips with them), and Capt. Bland thought it could be a cool two day trip - hit Stetson one day and the ship the second, but until there is actually something there to dive, it's all talk.

How far is this from Freeport.

The site is situated 61 miles from the Freeport jetties, and 58 miles from the Galveston jetties. By comparison Stetson is 70 and 73 miles from Freeport and Galveston respectively.

-Chris

 

[sea_ledford]

Update on this project is here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/te...ge-ship-artificial-reef-site.html#post7568059

-Chris

 

[divezonescuba]

Apparently, there were no bids and it has be rereleased for March.

 

[sea_ledford]

The Ship project has been awarded, and it seems to be a race to see if the vendor can get the ship they initially proposed before it gets sold to someone else. They do have a back up ship, so we'll see what happens.

This project is all going to be about the timing working out, so not much of an update, but atleast we have an awardee.

-Chris

 

[Cyprian]

That's great news, Chris! Thanks for the update.

 

[tripntx]

Thanks for the update. It's refreshing to hear a little bit of positive news.