Trip Summary
During this period, there was 1 dive trip and 1 construction trip conducted. A dive monitoring trip was made on April 16 to FH-13 to inspect the buoy hardware there and to make observations of the nearby rubble pile. A construction trip was made on May 10 to deposit concrete rubble and derelict pipes at FH-2. Mississippi Power Company donated the material and contracted Vice Construction and Colle Towing to make the deployment. MGFB contracted PRIMOFISH.COM to conduct the spotter operations.

FH-13 Buoy Inspection
During the buoy deployments on March 1 of this year, the terminal tackle for one buoy was lost on FH-3 when the weld broke that holds the eye to the pipe flange. Since then it was reported that another buoy had floated ashore with the same mode of failure. A newer anchor design was also implemented on this latest deployment and it was desired to inspect it's functionality and to visually inspect the terminal tackle for any evidence of failure. No visual problems were seen and the new Dor-Moor Anchor looked to be functioning very well. While over sedimentation was not evident, it appears that it will hold quite well. The location of the FH-13 Buoy is 30°02.253'N and 88°31.400' W.

960911 Rubble6 FH-13 (ID=174F13)
Lat 30°02.245' Long 88°31.430' TD's: 12458.9 47032.0
This concrete rubble reef was constructed on September 11, 1996. Observations on this trip revealed an abundance of red snapper (125-150 counted), several small gag grouper (8-10 counted), trigger fish (25-30 counted), blue runners (300-350), small spade fish (50-75), and numerous bait fish. Several finger corals were thriving measuring 20-24 inches in length. Comparative to earlier trips, there were fewer sea urchins and other invertebrates. It is suspected that the oxygen depletion that was experienced in this region last year may have had an effect on their population. Overall the reef was performing very well and provided very good habitat for the marine life. Visibility was 20-25 feet in the upper water but only about 3 feet at the bottom. Some video was taken, but was hampered by the poor visibility. It was noticed that many of the larger snapper (5-15 pounds each, 12-15 count) stayed in the upper water (30-40 feet of depth), but would actually follow the diver and bait to within 15 feet of the boat. When the FH-13 Buoy was placed here March 1, it was purposely placed close to this reef to give inexperienced fishermen an easy reef to find. One merely needs to go a few hundred feet west of the buoy to find it.

000510 Ash Pipe & Rubble FH-2 (ID=244F2)
This material was donated by Mississippi Power Company. It consists of about 1200 feet of 8"-10" fiberglass pipe that was part of their ash sluice system. The pipes were encrusted with calcium carbonate over time and could not be cleaned. The pipes were cut into 20 foot lengths and many were bundled together. The pipes weigh about 50 pounds per foot and were deposited along with large chunks of concrete to help stabilize them on the bottom. Mississippi Power Company paid for all costs associated with the deployment except for the spotter boat. Sea conditions were marginal at about 3 feet causing the material to scatter a little. It was placed just north of the FH-2 buoy within a triangular area formed by the following DGPS coordinates.
Lat 30°05.278' Long 88°33.718'
Lat 30°05.232' Long 88°33.701'
Lat 30°05.207' Long 88°33.755'

Boat engine repairs caused the primary boat "PRIMOFISH.COM" to be in the shop, so backup boat "Other Woman II" was used. LORAN was not available, but LORAN coordinates will be obtained in the near future and put into the database. The FH-2 buoy is at Lat 30°05.197' Long 88°33.736' TD's: 12435.4 47043.8 29610.7. Since the material is close to the FH-2 buoy, there should be no problem in locating the material. DGPS Coordinates were obtained with a Garmin GPSMAP 210. On this trip the unit was tracking 6 satellites, DOP was 1.5, and EPE was 51 feet.

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EMail Author: Mark@primofish.com