Which one can we sink?

[MeiLing]

Furthermore, one new wreck is not going to turn Hawaii into a premier diving destination!

Rome wasn't built in a day.

No, it surely wasn't! But the folks with the vision in Rome were the ones in power with a hell of a lot more slaves to get the job done than the Hawaii Dive Community!

And when I talked about premier diving destinations, I was referring to more than just wrecks. Our state, county, diving community and average citizens need to come together to reverse the decline of the marine ecosystem.

In my mind, that subject is a lot higher on the agenda than sinking another wreck. It's not like I've even dove the ones we have enough to be bored of them and I have over 300 dives on this island! Who can afford to boat dive every weekend?

The greater issue is that we are rock in the middle of the ocean in the middle of a fuel crisis! Getting the tourists here is 85% of the battle. Then divers make up a very small percentage of our visitor community!

 

[scottitheduck]

So.... by some accounts the sinking of the Oriskany took $20 million.

One study calculated the impact of the Mighty O....

* $3.6 million total impact from dive related expenditures
* Creation of 67 additional jobs

A rep from the Pensacola Visitor Bereau said:

“This study tells us that we have not only made a major impact on the dive world but have found an economic engine that has created a beneficial ripple throughout the community. The Oriskany brings the divers who stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and enjoy many of the attractions offered in the Pensacola Bay Area.”

This could be huge people.... and it never hurts to dream!

G

 

[onfloat]

I volunteer tom to be the super glue-hold-the-ship together guy

One word.....Duct Tape!

 

[onfloat]

Because these days the government is involved, talk to them. I hate to rain on a parade but at one time we explored sinking a ship in Oregon. After two years, with no answers all those involved gave up. Can't talk about it, can't tell them what you can do, you have to ask, come up with big money and stay involved.

I work for the government and I'm here to help.:14:

Part of what I do now is force processes to work and challenge them when they don't. It's not impossible (and if it is it just takes a little longer)

Heck as for money we could do fund raisers. They built the Marine Corps Museum by selling engraved bricks to pave a walk way around it.

 

[Killjoy]

Furthermore, one new wreck is not going to turn Hawaii into a premier diving destination!

I've been reading this thread for the last week and finally decided to through my two cents in:

1 - As much as I would love another wreck to dive here in Hawaii, it ISN’T going bring more divers to Hawaii to make significant changes to the economy. The uniqueness of the Oriskney and press coverage helped Florida, and by Scottitheduck’s number only slightly.

2 - The state needs more Marine Conservation districts. Look at the popularity of Shark's Cove. For a tourist location that sells its self as a "tropical paradise" you would think protecting it natural resources would be a high priority.


3 - The most popular, most dived site, are full of dying corals which results in less fish, which results in less divers, which results in less tourists, which results in less money...you get the idea.

4 - One thing I've learned after 18+ years in the military is that successful change starts small (and cheap) and grows from there. Getting more people and money as the small changes grows makes bigger changes happen.

A first step maybe as simply as get UH behind a project like this can start the ball rolling
Electricity Revives Bali Coral Reefs

 

[MeiLing]

I've been reading this thread for the last week and finally decided to through my two cents in:

1 - As much as I would love another wreck to dive here in Hawaii, it ISN’T going bring more divers to Hawaii to make significant changes to the economy. The uniqueness of the Oriskney and press coverage helped Florida, and by Scottitheduck’s number only slightly.

One of the things that folks constantly seem to forgot when comparing us to mainland attractions of any sort; be it SCUBA diving or attendance at our University's football games; is that we are on a rock in the middle of the Pacific. If you are not already here, you need a hell of a lot of money, in addition to the motivation to get here. You can't just throw a tent, sleeping bag and SCUBA gear into to your car and drive in from a surrounding state or 8 states away. Because of that, the market for diving in this state is not very good.

Heck, they even have huge funding issues with the USS Missouri which is an attraction for a for greater portion of the tourist market!

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

I have yet to see any reason of why not to try to do this, bottom line it can't hurt so why not at least try...I am with you gabe

 

[CaptFlyingDutchman]

One of the things that folks constantly seem to forgot when comparing us to mainland attractions of any sort; be it SCUBA diving or attendance at our University's football games; is that we are on a rock in the middle of the Pacific. If you are not already here, you need a hell of a lot of money, in addition to the motivation to get here. You can't just throw a tent, sleeping bag and SCUBA gear into to your car and drive in from a surrounding state or 8 states away. Because of that, the market for diving in this state is not very good.

Heck, they even have huge funding issues with the USS Missouri which is an attraction for a for greater portion of the tourist market!

1. There are several rocks in the middle of the ocean, farther and more expensive to get to than Hawaii that people travel to (Guam, Indonesia, Bikini, Philippines, Truk, Galapagos, Fiji, Palau, Cocos, Maldives, Christmas, etc, etc, etc)

2. The Mighty Mo they are trying to keep like new. A huge amount of funds is for up keep, power, repair, and restoration for the 800+ ft long, 60+ year old vessel. That is way the Clyde is in bad shape, could not keep up with the cost of repair.

Sinking a wreck is pretty much set it and forget it, with minimum amount of money to maintain. I agree with Hue. Lets take the chance. Doing nothing will result in the same outcome as failure. So we loss nothing and gain great amounts of experience for next time. Atlantis got two wrecks sunk, Voyager one, Daco one, and there are several smaller ones, not counting the other islands. Most of the wrecks are counted as fish havens.

 

[okamiotoko2004]

I will see if I can dig up my old contact at inacts here in Pearl.

Have to see if any of the ships here are up for or will be up for striking from the registry. That is the first thing. Some of the ships here are inacts are relatively new additions to inacts and they usually don't strike the ships till they are way out of date and no longer recallable to active service.

Also volunteers cannot do alot the the work to prep the ship unless they invest in a ton of training, certifications, and equipment. To remove all the hazardous materials from the ship is very time consuming and coltly. For example the fuel tanks have ot be certified and completely cleaned. These tanks are generally nasty. You cannot be in them without ventilatio whether inline air supply or forced ventilation. Also there is personal protective equipment. Plus all the gear to clean the sludge out of the tanks. Then there is transportation and disposal of the hazardous waste. This is just one example of the hazardous waste on the ships. There is asbestos all over the older ships in piping and insulation and some of the deck coverings. Lead is also all the ships.

Another item is to make the ship safe for diving some of the cabling and gear has to be removed so when it rusts and starts to fall it doesn't become an entrapment hazard.

Other costs will include pier and/or dry dock fees. Also tugs and pier services to move and support the ship while it is prepped for sinking. Drydocks if needed is one million in and million out and that is just to dock and undock the ship.

Another costs is the professionals to set the explosives to sink the ship.

Also limited companies here on the island that can do it. Two that I know of are Honolulu Shipyard (Pearl Harbor Shipyard, not the Navy one) and BAE (formerly HSI). Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is capable but not sure if they will do something like that.

Raising money should start as soon as possible which is good because to get through the Navy and Hawaii red tape will take a lot of time.

 

[Tom Winters]

What would be most cool is if they took all those rustbuckets from Inactive Ships and made a nice Bikini Atoll anchorage out of all of them. It won't happen, of course, since the only major protected waters on Oahu are at K'Bay and that's a little bit less than crystal-clear.
Any ex-warship out there that gets reefed will be a miracle, unless Senator Dan signs on. Then it'll happen overnight in West Loch.
Good luck and don't become a regular at To Chau on River Street unless you can handle it.