Delaware Artificial Reefs Get Another Infusion of Sporting Opportunity
March 11, 2010
Delaware’s Redbird Reef—the largest site of sunken vehicles and vessels in the state’s network of artificial reefs—was enhanced for recreational diving this week with the sinking of a retired 74-foot tugboat, while another reef site received as fish habitat commercial barges that will make for more bites for anglers.
The Sandy Point, a towboat, went down near the Bay Tide and Crazy Horse, two retired fishing boats sunk on the Redbird Reef within the last year. “They are close enough together that a diver can probably now access all three vessels on a single dive,” said Jeffrey Tinsman, DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife artificial reef program manager.
The Redbird Reef—whose name is a derivation of the retired New York City subway cars that comprise much of its mass—has almost 1,000 of the stainless steel vehicles within the reef site. Retired naval vessels and trawlers also reside on the ocean floor there as attractions for anglers as well as divers to Delaware’s most popular reef site.
Another Delaware artificial reef, Site 11 (of the state’s 14 permitted reef sites), received its first deployment of reefing material in more than a year with the sinking of two barges whose length exceeded 100 feet and four sectional barges each approximately 25 feet long. One of the longer flat deck barges sunk on Site 11, which lies 5∏ miles outside the Indian River Inlet, was the retired Navy barge YC-725 (110-feet).
A third artificial reef and newest in the state’s network, the Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef, will later this year welcome the ex-USS Arthur W. Radford, a Navy destroyer, as the largest vessel ever reefed on the East Coast. The 563-foot-long Radford is expected to be sunk in early summer.
“All the barges and the tug sank nicely into their new homes,” Tinsman said of the latest reef deployments. As always, a reefed vessel is 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 compartments and enabling it to sink very quickly.
The vessels for this week’s deployment 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.
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