Houston’s scuba diving community has launched a massive online campaign in an effort to get approval to sink a 200 foot ship off the coast of Galveston to become an artificial reef and diving hot spot.

More than $4 million worth of funding has already been secured to pay for the project, which would be the first of its kind this close to the Bayou City. It would sit just 67 miles from Galveston.

“This would be fantastic,” said Roger Veteto from the City of Houston Underwater Mariners. “There are thousands of divers in the Houston area and a ship reef would bring more from accross the state and the country.”

The closest project of it’s kind right now is the Texas Clipper, a 500 foot maritime marine training vessel, which was sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of South Padre Island in 2007.

Divers say the Clipper is just too far away to make day trips possible, so this new project would fill a gap in Texas’ coastal tourism and bring big economic benefits to the area.

“A wreck like this would be a destination type wreck like those sunk for divers off Key Largo and Pensacola,” said Captain Randy Smith, one of the owners of Sport Divers of Houston Inc. in Webster.

The Pensacola reef, the USS Oriskany, or the Mighty ‘O’ as it is known locally, is a World War II aircraft carrier sunk in 2006.  That generated an extra $6m for the local economy in it’s first year according to a 2007 study by the National Center for Environmental Economics.

Capt. Smith was at a public meeting about the Galveston project held by Texas Parks and Wildlife back in January.  He says $1.8 million has been secured from BP restoration money after the Deep Water Horizon Disaster.  Another $2.4 million is coming from the Texas Artificial Reef Fund.

“What we need now are public comment cards saying, ‘Yes, we want the ship reef,'” Smith said.

The issue is the amount of work it takes to clean up a ship and get it ready for sinking, which can take several years. There’s also the added challenge of finding a ship in the first place.

An alternate plan proposes putting concrete fishing reefs near Corpus Cristi, a much smaller and simpler idea, but less spectacular. Captain Smith says Texas Parks and Wildlife want to know if people in Houston think this project is worth the extra effort.

Divers estimate about 2 to 3 percent of the population are certified scuba divers and say dive trips available now out to oil rigs that have been sunk as reefs in the past are popular.

“It would absolutely work,” said Roger Veteto of the City of Houston Underwater Mariners, “Four or five boats run trips out every weekend to the oil rigs, we are looking for public support, we are trying to mobilize our members to get in touch with Texas Parks and Wildlife, we think the ship reef project would have a big positive impact.”

The deadline for public comment is 19th February.  More details about the project can be found here.