Panhandling for New Wrecks In the Gulf of Mexico
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By Stephen Weir
· From the June 2016 issue of Diver Magazine
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| OceanWind was sunk to create a new dive site for Florida Pan Handle divers. Close too shore and not too deep. Not yet part of the Trail (but could be soon) wreck already a popular dive site. |
Florida Panhandle divers don’t have to apologize for having a sinking feeling tug, away at their C-cards. Early this year OceanWind, a retired harbour tug was made environmentally safe, hauled out into the Gulf of Mexico and scuttled. Dive shops in Pensacola are already running scuba charters out to the first new artificial reef of 2016 and promise that there are more ships to be sunk this year and beyond!The OceanWind was a floating workhorse. Built in 1952, she worked in the Pensacola Harbour pushing and pulling big ships as they came in and left port. The OceanWind has a massive engine to bully much bigger craft near the docks. She was 30 metres long, 8 metres wide and 12 metres tall.
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| Panhandle snorkel shop - Photo Stephen Weir |
In January, Pensacola’s Marine Resources Division
sank the tugboat in 29
metres of water. The newest Gulf of
Mexico artificial reef is about 16 kilometres southeast of Pensacola and is far
enough out into the Gulf to be in, most of the time, blue water.
The State of Florida takes a
Field of Dreams approach to artificial reefs.
Sink one and a few divers will come.
Sink a lot of them and many many divers will come. As a result the Ocean Wind is just one of
hundreds of ships, airplanes, scrapped bridges and oil rigs that have been sunk
off Florida’s three coasts over the past decade. The State believes that artificial reefs
boost the sport fishing and the sport diving industries.
“ We are aggressive,” explains Florida County
Commissioner, Steven Abramas. “Between 70 and 100
artificial reefs are deployed each year in Florida using a combination of
state, federal, local and private money, including funds from the sale of
fishing licenses. These reefs must be made of clean concrete, rock or heavy
gauge steel. Ships, cars or other items are carefully cleaned before being
placed on the ocean floor.”
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| Panhandle Dive Boat - Stephen Weir photo |
The Florida Panhandle region has built a dive
tourism industry one sinking at a time. According to the Pensacola
News Journal “data from a recent economic analysis for the FWC found that
Escambia County’s Artificial Reef Program has an annual economic benefit of
more than $150 million (US), while also supporting nearly 2,350 jobs.”
This drive to sink things off the Panhandle
– they have also sunk two fighter jets - began in 2006 with the sinking of the
Mighty O (or as it is called now “The Great Carrier Reef”). The USS Oriskany was a United States Navy Aircraft
Carrier built shortly after the end of World War Two. She was scuttled in deepwater three hours out from Pensacola
-- the Oriskany is the world’s largest artificial reef and considered one of
the top ten wrecksites in the world.
The Oriskany was meant to the cornerstone of Florida’s
Panhandle Trail – a dozen-must dive shipwrecks . Ironically, the ship that
earned the Panhandle Trail the most media is probably the least dove of the 12
boats on the Trail.
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Divers swim deep along the side of the Oriskany aircraft carrier. The flight deck of the Oriskany is at 44m. Photo – Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail |
The wreck is a long, long boat ride out from shore,
and the bottom-time of is very, very short, typically 25minutes or less. Except in the late summer and early fall, the
water is cold and the visibility can be limited.
Originally the flight deck of the Oriskany was at the
edge of sport diving depths. But following Hurricane Gustave the 271 metre long
warship sank a further 3 metres putting
the massive landing deck of the aircraft at a depth of 44 metres, out of
the safety range of scuba (tech divers are free to explore the ship at any
depth). Compressed air divers must stay on the bridge tower at 40 metres
overlooking the deck. When I was on her
in 2014 many people I was diving with did a bounce dive onto to flight deck,
making for a short bottomtime.
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| The flight deck of the Oriskany is at 44m. Photo by Stephen Weir |
For
now neither the tug Ocean Wind nor the Voodoo fighter jets are included in the
Panhandle Trail, although they could be added soon now that dive shops are
taking divers out to them. “ We worked with the dive industry to figure out which wrecks should initially be on the Trail” he continued. “ No
reason why new wrecks can’t be added. Right
now what is on the Trail are 10 artificial reef ships and 2 that were sunk
naturally”
PANHANDLE SHIPWRECK TRAIL
PASSPORT
Currently on the Trail there are 12 shipwrecks near Pensacola, Destin, Panama City and Port St. Joe, Florida.
The Florida Panhandle Shipwreck
Trail offers a unique passport program highlighting discovered facts and
historical data for each of the shipwrecks along the Trail. Whether exploring
the largest artificial reef in the world – the USS Oriskany,or marveling
at the wonder of Mother Nature’s arrangement of two tugs situated atop one
another on the FAMI Tugs – divers and snorkelers can track experiences with the
official Panhandle Shipwreck Trail Passport available from participating dive shops and dive charter operators or by visiting floridapanhandledivetrail.com.
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