News from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Jan. 16, 2010 - Vol. 40, No. 14
For more information contact Jeffrey Tinsman, Fisheries Section, DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife, 302-739-4782; or Michael Globetti, Public Affairs, 302-739-9902.
Two retired boats are sent down to Delaware’s artificial reefs in run-up to ex-USS Radford sinking
DOVER— Two retired ocean-going vessels were sunk Saturday over Delaware’s artificial reefs as the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control continues to expand aquatic habitat while furthering the state’s recreational angling and diving opportunities.
The Atlantic Mist went down onto the Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef, Delaware’s newest artificial reef—and the site that later this year will receive the ex-USS Arthur W. Radford, a Navy destroyer, as the largest vessel ever reefed on the East Coast. The Atlantic Mist, a 180-foot menhaden boat, joined a sister ship sunk earlier from the menhaden fishing fleet, the Gregory Poole, in the ocean depths 26 miles off the Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland coasts. The Del-Jersey-Land Reef is thus named because the site is equidistant from the three states after which it is named.
“Having come to their useful ends as fishing boats, both the Poole and the Atlantic Mist also are ex-warships given new life as artificial reefing material,” said Jeffrey Tinsman, reef program manager for DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife. “They and the Radford sinking ahead will expand on what we’ve started with reefing decommissioned ships on the Del-Jersey-Land Reef, and we anticipate more retired Navy vessels to come.”
The second sinking Saturday was the 78-foot shrimper Frieda Marie, onto the Redbird Reef, Delaware’s most prominent artificial reef, and whose name derives from the retired New York City “Red Bird” subway cars that constitute most of the reef, more than 1,000 cars in all. With the subway cars accounting for a total surface area of more than 2.5 million square feet, Redbird Reef supports a marine life community up to 400 times richer than the natural bottom.
Before becoming a menhaden ship, the Atlantic Mist entered service in the 1950s as the USS Ely, a submarine escort and coastal patrol craft based out of Sheboygan, Wisc. As the Ely, it was one of the first ships to transit the new St. Lawrence Seaway and also was the last Navy ship homeported at the Sheboygan Naval Reserve Center, which closed in 1995. The Frieda Marie achieved notoriety last summer when it ran aground off Chincoteague along the coast of Virginia. The two ships’ combined length is less than half that of the former- Radford (563 feet), to which Delaware will take title soon as first step toward a planned late spring or summer sinking.
Decommissioned and retired ships are prepared for sinking by having strategic slits cut into the hull, which are then patched over until the ship is towed to its destination. Once over the reef, the patches are removed and the sea cocks opened, flooding the ship’s compartments and enabling it to sink very quickly.
Both vessels were cleaned and prepped, then towed to the reef sites and sank by the Dominion Marine Group of Norfolk, Va., under contract with DNREC’s Division of Fish and Wildlife Delaware Reef Program, and primarily funded through the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The vessels were cleaned by Dominion Marine Group to remove all greases and buoyant materials that might be harmful to the marine environment. The U.S. Coast Guard inspected and approved the boats prior to transport to the reef site.
Reef construction is especially important in the Mid-Atlantic region, where the ocean bottom is usually featureless sand or mud. A decommissioned vessel makes ideal reef material, because voids and cavities in its structure provide the perfect sanctuary for reef fish. Within a few weeks, blue mussels, sponges, barnacles and soft corals attach to the structure, and in about a year, the reef will be fully productive, resembling natural habitat.
Delaware has 14 permitted artificial reef sites in the Delaware Bay and coastal waters, with five of these sites located in federal (ocean) waters. Development of the sites began in 1995 as part of a comprehensive fisheries management effort by the Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Delaware Reef Program.
For more information on the state’s artificial reefs, please visit http://www.fw.delaware.gov/Fis…rtificialReefProgram.aspx or contact Jeff Tinsman, Delaware Reef Program administrator, at (302) 739-4782.