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Dive Report: Fuggedaboudit Wreck
Date: Saturday morning October 6, 2001
Boat: Reel Time
Captain: Tony Andreoni
By: Mike Rodriguez
Some time ago, one of the Association of Underwater Explorers (AUE) core divers
spoke with Dr. Chris Koenig of Florida State University regarding the state of the coral
along an area called the Oculina Bank off the central east coast of Florida. The area is
named for the beautiful white Oculina coral that grows in the area in 200
to 400 feet of water. This coral has in recent years been almost wiped out by illegal trawling in the
area. Like all natural systems, the effects of this devastation are widespread and
long-lasting.
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, NOAA, and Florida State University have
been actively studying the problem and working to restore the coral habitat which helps
support numerous recreational and commercial fish species. Dr. Koenig has been
active in these efforts. One successful method of restoring the destroyed coral
habitat is to collect healthy coral, transplant small pieces of it onto concrete slabs, and drop them
in areas where the coral has been destroyed. Dr. Koenig has previously used several
methods of collecting the coral including manned submersibles, remote operated
vehicles, and dredges. While partially successful, the amount of coral collected this way
has been limited and the operations expensive.
The AUE, hearing of this, offered to help since the depths involved were easily within
our reach and the wrecks we routinely dive in the Cape Canaveral area south of the
Oculina Bank are covered with healthy coral. Dr. Koenig agreed and set up the
necessary research permits to harvest the coral and chartered the boat for our trip. I
joked that as long as we had a permit to wreck environmental havoc on the coral,
maybe Dr. Koenig could get us a permit to research exactly how much butter is
necessary to make jewfish taste best. :)
The gang of three AUE core divers showed up at the boat early Saturday morning. We
were loaded and on our way quickly. The day was warm with temperatures around
84F. It was sunny and pleasant. The sea was running about two feet with long-period
swells. I took advantage of the ride out to catch up on some sleep while the other
guys hung out on the deck talking with no less than a space shuttle astronaut! Bruce Melnick
(STS-41, STS-49), a friend of the captain, heard of our dives in the area and wanted
to join us. The gang was flattered that someone who's been in space twice would be
interested in what we do. Bruce is an open water diver and wanted to see us
in action; everyone had a great time talking to him about space flight. I even offered him a ride in
my Cessna if he'd take me for a ride in the Space Shuttle. :)
The boat made way at nearly 30 knots and we were at the site of the Fuggedaboudit
Wreck in about an hour. The wreck is an "unknown" named Fuggedaboudit because
the location is top-secret; when asked where it is, the AUE gang always answers
"Fuggedaboudit!".
When we reached the site, my buddy took out one of the baskets we'd use to collect
the coral. The baskets are a spring-loaded affair similar to those self-deploying tents
popular with campers. As soon as he'd taken the basket out of it's storage pouch, it
exploded from a tightly wound disk to a full-size basket, startling my buddy and
bopping him up-side the head. Everyone on the boat collapsed in a fit of laughter. Just
then, a small note fell out of the basket "warning" the user that the basket is spring
loaded and to be careful when opening it. This made us all laugh even more!
When everyone recovered from the laughing, the captain set about estimating the
current, then we went slightly upstream of the wreck and dropped our grapple hook. It
caught and the gang geared up for the drop. The current appeared to be only about a
knot or so, but when we dropped into the water, the scooters could barely make
headway against the flow. We bailed out and boarded the boat. It seems the
wind was blowing the boat opposite the current and this made our estimate misleading. We
decided to swim down the line instead of scootering down and when we were again in
position, we dropped back in and reached the wreck in just under than four minutes.
The hook was draped over the gunnel and dropped to the sand below. I followed
it down to make sure it would be easy to free at the end of our dive, then I joined my
buddies on the deck. It was cold, with the temperature around 60F. There was a very
light current on the bottom despite the strong current on the surface. The visibility was
only about 20 feet, and it was fairly dark.
The Fuggedaboudit Wreck sits upright in the sand about 305 feet down. The AUE
gang "discovered" it on a recent expedition to the area. My buddy and I were the only
humans to have seen the wreck since it went down and on this dive we'd make our
second visit; the third team member would make his first.
The wreck is heavily overgrown and appears to have been down a long time. Huge
Oculina thickets grow in clumps all over the wreck. A few feet from our line, one of the
thickets was growing; we immediately got to work collecting the coral. I have a great
respect for the environment, so it was disconcerting to be breaking off chunks of
coral. I consoled myself in the knowledge that we had a permit to do this, and it was for the
greater good of the environment.
It took less than five minutes to fill the collection basket with coral and shoot it to the
surface on a liftbag. After that was done, we took off exploring a bit. One of my
buddies has a keen eye for artifacts and quickly found an 88mm brass shell casing
which suggests this wreck is probably a WWII casualty. Shortly after this find, my
buddy signaled that he was cold, so the three of us cut short our dive and headed back
to the line. I dropped to the sand to free our hook, and with a little teamwork, we had
it fouled within seconds.
During deco we were joined by a small bull shark that circled us for about 20 minutes
before leaving. When we got back to the boat, the first question on our mind was
weather the crew had snagged the basket of coral. They had, and Dr. Koenig was
surprised at the large quantity we'd recovered. In addition to the coral, several of the
little pink fish (Hemanthias vivanus) that live in the coral had come up with it. They're
always fun to see as they swim around near the coral, then abruptly vanish into the
branches as a diver approaches. They look like an umbrella suddenly closing, then
opening again slowly as the diver swims away.
We stowed our gear and had lunch with an astronaut while the captain took us to the
site of our afternoon dive on the Cities Service Empire. It was a great start to the
weekend and we were especially pleased that in addition to having a fun dive, we were
able to help with the coral restoration project so critical to the local environment.
Copyright
© 2001 Mike Rodriguez. All rights reserved. |