News
Divers In Houston Get Behind Multi Million Dollar Reef Project
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.
Fire on Monroe Bravo is the latest book in the Jack Collier series by Fred Lockwood. Our story begins with our lead characters, Jack and Sandro, owners of Marine Salvage & Investigation Company, arriving on the Monroe Bravo Oil & Gas Platform in the North Sea. Having secured a contract for their vessel the MV Stavanger to act as support ship to the platform for TransGlobal Oil, our protagonists are on a celebratory visit.
However almost as soon as they arrive a series of explosions rock the platform, causing huge damage, loss of life and the very real danger of a massive human, ecological and financial disaster.
As the danger mounts for both our heroes and the surviving workers, Jack and Sandro will have to escape the inferno, all while trying to save the platform and the men still trapped unable to help themselves.
The disaster sets the scene for the unfolding story lines following the fate of the platform and our main characters, the police investigation into a suspected terrorist act and the actions of TransGlobal Oil as they attempt to navigate the pubic outcry and financial repercussions.
In his eighth book, Fire on Monroe Bravo, Fred Lockwood delivers an explosive thriller, with plenty of above and in-water drama, and our heroes fighting for survival, what more can you ask for?
We thoroughly recommend this read and look forward to the next in the series. For more information about his book series, you can check out the reviews of his previous books here on Scubaverse.
- Title: Fire On Monroe Bravo
- Author: Fred Lockwood
- ISBN: 979-8325324536
Available in a paperback version and for Kindle from Amazon and book stores.
In June we were incredibly fortunate to be invited to dive in Alonissos, a small Greek Island in the Sporades island chain located in the North Aegean Sea. While I have long been a big fan of the Greek Islands as a great holiday destination, I had not had the opportunity to do any diving on previous visits and Mike and I were extremely excited to see what Alonissos had to offer both above and below the surface!
The Sporades are easily accessible via the airport in Skiathos (the first island in the chain), which is served by Jet2 flights from all major UK airports from May through October. Numerous ferries and charter boats make island hopping from Skiathos Town a breeze. After an hour boat ride, the picturesque port of Patitiri was a wonderful introduction to Alonissos, where we were met by our gracious hosts Kostas of Albedo Travel and Dias of Alonissos Triton Dive Center. Mike and I were delighted to be staying at the Paradise Hotel, aptly named for its stunning views over the sea and great location for walking to the waterfront.
Alonissos is beautifully situated in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and the Northern Sporades, the largest marine protected area in Europe. The surrounding seas offer fabulous marine life, including incredibly rare species such as the Mediterranean monk seal. They boast deep walls covered in gorgonians and sponges, stunning topography with caverns, swimthroughs and pinnacles, and the first accessible ancient shipwreck from 500BC!
In locations where historical sites have been reported, the waters are largely restricted, but with collaboration between government, underwater archeologists and dive centres, incredible underwater museums are being created for a truly unique diving experience. Alonissos is home to the first of these, the Ancient Shipwreck of Peristera Accessible Underwater Archeological Site. The chance to dive into history (along with reports of healthy reef life and amazing underwater topography) meant Mike and I were keen to get in the water.
Our introduction to the diving around Alonissos was at the Agios Georgios Pinnacles, in the channel between Alonissos and Skopelos. This fantastic site was named “The Chimney,’ and proved to have a huge amount to see. We got to a decent depth here (over 25m), and marvelled at a colourful reef wall with a wonderful swim through whose rocky walls were absolutely covered with life. As well as brilliant topography there was no shortage of macro life here. We saw numerous nudibranchs, five different species in total. The second dive at Mourtias reef nearby was a shallower dive along a nice wall with lots of crevices. Several moray eels and grouper called this site home. We enjoyed looking in the crevices for lobster and smaller benthic life, such as cup corals and tunicates.
Our itinerary allowed us two dives a day with afternoons left to explore the island with our hire car and evenings to enjoy the famous Greek hospitality. This proved to be a lovely mix of in-water and land based diversions.
The next days diving to the Gorgonian Gardens and Triton’s Cave was to be even better! These two stunning sites are nothing short of fabulous. The Gorgonian Gardens was a deep wall near to the Agios Georgios islands. The ever-present currents in this deep channel meant that the sea life was amazing … the namesake Gorgonian sea fans dotted the wall at a depth of 30 to 50 meters, getting ever larger the deeper we went. Above 30m was by no means less beautiful, with sponges, corals, scorpionfish, moray eels and some rare and colourful nudibranchs.
The second shallower dive of the day was to Triton’s Cave or the Cavern of Skopelos, on the east side of that island. The spectacular rock formations had wild striations both above and below the water making a truly epic topography. The cavern entrance was at 14m, and big enough for a buddy pair, winding up to 6m and passing two beautiful windows out into the blue. Emerging from the cavern, the light at the shallower depths and the incredible rock formations made for a fantastic gentle swimming safety stop and we all surfaced by the boat with massive grins.
Check out our next blog :Alonissos: The complete diving destination (Part 2)” to hear about our amazing dive on the 2500 year old Peristera Wreck!
Thanks to:
Alonissos Triton Dive Center https://bestdivingingreece.com/
Albedo Travel https://alonissosholidays.com/activities/
Paradise Hotel https://paradise-hotel.gr/
Alonissos Municipality https://alonissos.gr/en/
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