Which one can we sink?

[MeiLing]

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) .

Uh, all of those places that you've named are premier diving destinations to start with. And in regards to the PI, you can get room, meals and all the diving you can stand in a day for the cost of a single boat dive in Hawaii! Been there, done that!

Are you planning on making over the ocean here too?

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.

Sinking a wreck costs big bucks! How do you plan to come up with the tens of thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars that need to go into the project to bring about the sinking? Then you run up against the environmentalists. The last time they tried to sink a wreck here in Hawaii was on the Big Island and they were the inpenetrable brick wall that they ran up against and the project died!

And remember they can at least charge admission on the Mo'.

You want to fight the battle, go ahead. Personally, I like to pick battles that I can win! I'd settle for being able to get a Wilderness camping permit at Kaena Point as the battle that I would like to take on!

 

[scottitheduck]

So, by your reasoning, if it is unattainable, don't even try?

I'll take the other 40 or so optimistic approaches and run with em. What do we have to lose?

As far as "making over the ocean" I think we have a lot going for us here on Oahu. I took two tourists diving this morning who have dived all over in the Carrib and Cali and they lost their #$#% when they saw a turtle. Probably blew through 1000 pounds and shot 50 pics in the span of five minutes.

I think you are forgetting that the average "joe" and "jane" diver that comes here is someone from the mainland who is stoked that they aren't diving in a quarry, river or lake!

Finally, we have all heard it before.... Oahu is great for the wrecks, Kona for the Mantas and Maui for Molokini.... why not try to build on the reputation we already have? Seems like a no-brainer. I have a pretty light week coming up so hopefully we can get together for Pau Hana somewhere and start to trade some ideas. Since LOST is finally over for the season, I have Thursday nights open.... anyone else? Bueller, Bueller?

Filled with optimism,

G

 

[MeiLing]

So, by your reasoning, if it is unattainable, don't even try?

I'll take the other 40 or so optimistic approaches and run with em. What do we have to lose?

Lot's of time and lot's of other people's money that is going to take a lot of effort to raise!

I do wish you luck! You're gonna need it!

 

[scottitheduck]

Thanks.... now I just need to sort out which info on the web is up to date!

G

 

[scottitheduck]

Another study on the impact of sinking the Mighty-O:

Carrier sunk to make artificial reef - Environment - MSNBC.com

Note the final graph under the heading "Sinking had been delayed" I didn't major in math but $20mil for the project and $92mil/year sounds pretty good to me!

G

 

[MeiLing]

One of the things that you are not thinking about is that in Florida, you can sink something 24 miles off the coast and it is still a diveable wreck. Here, it has to be done in shore and that is why all the environmentalists start jumping up and down!

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

They jump up and down in Florida too. That's why the bill to sink the Vandenberg is approaching 10 million now.

 

[justleesa]

How about talking to Atlantis? They sunk three wrecks here and one on Maui. They might have some info how to go about it.

 

[scottitheduck]

I have revived this post because I think we were headed in the right direction....

Lisa, I'm calling Atlantis in the AM. I'll also put in a call over to the shop on Maui and see what kind of paperwork they went through to get the Carthaginian down. Finally, I will be calling The Maritime Center, HVCB and DLNR to try to obtain the proper info on how to go about getting the Falls of Clyde to be the newest addition to Oahu's fleet of wrecks....

G

 

[MeiLing]

Gabe,

No need to do all that calling. The state is already working on all the permitting. See my update on the Falls of Clyde post:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ha...your-help-falls-clyde-waianae-divesite-5.html

And what else it is that we need to be doing....