Scuttling gets big support
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Keynoter.com
By Kevin Wadlow
December 13, 2006
Florida should sink more shipwrecks as artificial reefs, say members of the state's top fishery board.
Staff of the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was urged by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission board members to lend assistance to ship-sinking efforts throughout Florida during a Thursday meeting in Key Largo.
“I'm telling you, they're a boon” to local economies, said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto, a part-time Key Largo resident from Miami.
During a report on upcoming staff projects, an FWC administrator said the agency planned to consider artificial-reef shipwrecks as a moderate priority.
Barreto said the FWC should become more involved in creating new shipwreck projects.
“We act more as a broker” to support efforts by local communities, said FWC Executive Director Ken Haddad. “We don't actively go after a ship.”
Responded Barreto, “I want to change that... We need to set up a program.”
The FWC is working with local backers on the Vandenberg project for Key West, but is not sponsoring the effort, Haddad said.
In May 2006, the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, 911 feet long, was scuttled as an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 miles off Pensacola.
“If the Oriskany was off Key Largo, you'd have to beat [divers] off with a stick,” Barreto said.
Small communities on the north gulf coast would welcome smaller vessels that could be scuttled closer to shore, said Commissioner Herky Huffman. “Some areas like Steinhatchee and Cedar Key don't have any industry except fishing and recreation,” he said.
“It's great to hear you say these things,” Spencer Slate, a Key Largo dive operator who spearheaded the Spiegel Grove sinking for several years, told the commission.
The Spiegel Grove, a 510-foot Navy ship sunk off Key Largo in 2002, has met expectations that it would generate 70,000 dives a year, Slate said.
“That's 70,000 people who are not diving on the reef, and giving us a big [economic] boost from what used to be an empty piece of real estate out there,” Slate said.
Commissioners advised staff to give its artificial-reef efforts a higher priority during the coming year.
In other action, the FWC board:
- Approved a rule that bans masted boats from anchoring in an area of Pine Channel, west of Big Pine Key. The rule was requested by the Monroe County Commission at the urging of Keys Energy utility officials. “Several incidents involv[ed] vessel masts that hit power lines during storms,” said an FWC spokeswoman. “Such strikes endangered people on the vessels, affected power to residents of the lower Keys and caused property damage.”
- Approved a memorandum of understanding between the state and the National Park Service on management of a new no-fishing zone inside the Dry Tortugas National Park.
Recreational-fishing groups opposed the 46-square-mile closing that leaves about half the national park waters open. Ted Forsgren of the Coastal Conservation Association said the state must approved performance measures “to evaluate if these things do what they say they do.”
Barreto said the FWC board believed the Dry Tortugas closure “is critical,” but agreed “measurable goals” for the area should be reviewed in three years.
Keynoter.com
By Kevin Wadlow
December 13, 2006
Florida should sink more shipwrecks as artificial reefs, say members of the state's top fishery board.
Staff of the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was urged by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission board members to lend assistance to ship-sinking efforts throughout Florida during a Thursday meeting in Key Largo.
“I'm telling you, they're a boon” to local economies, said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto, a part-time Key Largo resident from Miami.
During a report on upcoming staff projects, an FWC administrator said the agency planned to consider artificial-reef shipwrecks as a moderate priority.
Barreto said the FWC should become more involved in creating new shipwreck projects.
“We act more as a broker” to support efforts by local communities, said FWC Executive Director Ken Haddad. “We don't actively go after a ship.”
Responded Barreto, “I want to change that... We need to set up a program.”
The FWC is working with local backers on the Vandenberg project for Key West, but is not sponsoring the effort, Haddad said.
In May 2006, the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, 911 feet long, was scuttled as an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 miles off Pensacola.
“If the Oriskany was off Key Largo, you'd have to beat [divers] off with a stick,” Barreto said.
Small communities on the north gulf coast would welcome smaller vessels that could be scuttled closer to shore, said Commissioner Herky Huffman. “Some areas like Steinhatchee and Cedar Key don't have any industry except fishing and recreation,” he said.
“It's great to hear you say these things,” Spencer Slate, a Key Largo dive operator who spearheaded the Spiegel Grove sinking for several years, told the commission.
The Spiegel Grove, a 510-foot Navy ship sunk off Key Largo in 2002, has met expectations that it would generate 70,000 dives a year, Slate said.
“That's 70,000 people who are not diving on the reef, and giving us a big [economic] boost from what used to be an empty piece of real estate out there,” Slate said.
Commissioners advised staff to give its artificial-reef efforts a higher priority during the coming year.
In other action, the FWC board:
- Approved a rule that bans masted boats from anchoring in an area of Pine Channel, west of Big Pine Key. The rule was requested by the Monroe County Commission at the urging of Keys Energy utility officials. “Several incidents involv[ed] vessel masts that hit power lines during storms,” said an FWC spokeswoman. “Such strikes endangered people on the vessels, affected power to residents of the lower Keys and caused property damage.”
- Approved a memorandum of understanding between the state and the National Park Service on management of a new no-fishing zone inside the Dry Tortugas National Park.
Recreational-fishing groups opposed the 46-square-mile closing that leaves about half the national park waters open. Ted Forsgren of the Coastal Conservation Association said the state must approved performance measures “to evaluate if these things do what they say they do.”
Barreto said the FWC board believed the Dry Tortugas closure “is critical,” but agreed “measurable goals” for the area should be reviewed in three years.
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www.artificial-reefs.blogspot.com
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