Activity Report for the Period
June 15 - July 12, 2001
Trip Summary
During this period, there were 6 inshore rubble deployments and 7offshore diving/video surveys conducted. Approximately 1300 cubic yards of concrete rubble were deployed at the Horn Island Middle Ground FH-10 Site and about 700 additional cubic yards were deposited between the Ship Island FH-8 Site and FH-9/11 Site. Diving and Video Surveys were conducted on Rubble Sites in FH-13 and FH-2, on the Colle Barge in FH-2, and on the Von Rosenberg Reef (Pogey Boat) in FH-7. Namely, the Target IDs visited were 166F13/960829, 167F13/960830, 225F2/990728, 157F2/960817, 224F2/990716, 148F2/950811, and 236F7/000513.
Rubble Deployments
Rubble deployments were conducted by T&W Marine and PRIMOFISH.COM at the following IDs and coordinates:
ID DATE LAT/LON LORAN Remarks
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243F10 010616 30°15.893/88°38.976 12381.6/47085.2/29600.8 Scattered South ½ of FH-10 Site.
244F10 010618 30°15.887/88°38.925 12382.1/47085.1/29601.3 Concentrated FH-10 Site.
245F10 010620 30°15.867/88°38.987 12381.6/47085.1/29600.7 Concentrated FH-10 Site.
246F8 010628 30°16.077/88°57.655 12188.0/47082.2/29422.3 NE 1/4 of FH-8 Site.
247F10 010630 30°15.936/88°38.989 12381.7/47085.4/29600.8 NW 1/4 of FH-10 Site.
248F11 010710 30°15.525/88°54.062 12225.4/47080.9/29446.6 Spread West of Marker Piling.
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Dive & Video Surveys
Following the Rubble Deployment on June 16, a trip was made to FH-13. It was noticed that the FH-13 Marker Buoy that was reported off station last month had been towed back on station. The Coordinates are 30°02.180/88°31.396 which is very close to it's original position of 30°02.253/88°31.400. A dive was conducted on 166F13/960829 Rubble at 30°00.545/88°31.854. Water conditions were murky with very little light making it to the bottom. However, fish were thriving and hypoxic conditions as discussed below were not evident at this time. Visibility prevented accurate fish counts, but red snapper, trigger fish, blue runners, sheepshead, grouper, hi-tops, urchins, and arrow crabs were noted. Since visibility was so poor, no further dive efforts were made this day.
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On June 30, following the Rubble Deployment, a trip was made to 167F13/960830 Rubble. Interestingly, no fish were seen on the sounder and no bait was taken off the hooks. Upon descent it was quickly noticed that oscillated moray eels, brown shrimp, and mantis shrimp were swimming in the mid-water. Despite the moderate visibility of about 20 feet, no game fish nor bait fish were seen. In fact, the only fish observed were 2 Oyster Dogs and a small hake, besides a manta ray seen near the surface. Sea Urchins lay distressed with their spines layed down, although soft corals still seem healthy.
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Inquiries to Ian Workman at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has revealed that we are having another hypoxic condition (low oxygen) similar to that seen in 1999. He has indicated readings in the area of around 1.8 ppm where the readings should be greater than 5. A brief internet search shows hypoxia to be a very big problem between the mouth of the Mississippi River and going west toward Texas. We are now experiencing this problem locally. What is hypoxia? Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico refers to an area along the Louisiana-Texas coast in which water near the bottom of the Gulf contains less than 2 parts per million of dissolved oxygen. Hypoxia can cause stress or death in bottom dwelling organisms that can't move out of the hypoxic zone. Studies are being conducted to try and curb this problem. It has been linked to agriculture and industry runoff that causes algae and plankton blooms. These blooms deplete the water of oxygen and cause hypoxia. There may be many other contributing factors as well. Harmful algal blooms may have been responsible for an estimated $1,000,000,000 in economic losses during the past decade. This is a tragic problem to MGFB's reef sites and warrants further monitoring. See these links for more information on Hypoxia:
Hypoxia Links: Louisiana University NOAA First Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Management Conference CAST Report USGS_1 USGS_2 New EPA Law Illinois State Water Survey hypoxia reducing product Yahoo Hits
Following the dive, a visit was made to a nearby oil rig (MO-992A) about 0.8 miles to the south. The dive showed that all fish were about 30 feet above the bottom and up. A visit was then conducted to FH-2 at 225F2/990728 Rubble. No hypoxic conditions were seen here and some excellent video was obtained of numerous red snapper (350-400), mangrove snapper (40-50), groupers (8-12), triggers (8-12) and spade fish (100-150). This reef is indeed thriving.
Since visibility was fairly good, a return trip was made on July 1 to visit several locations in FH-2, namely, 157F2/960817 Rubble, 148F2/950811 Colle Barge, 224F2/990716 Rubble, and even a brief inspection of the FH-2 marker buoy which showed no problems. All sites showed excellent concentrations of fish and corals. Particularly the Colle Barge's deck was showing a strong concentration of soft corals. Blue Runners were particularly thick on the last site mentioned (224F2).
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On July 3, a trip was made to the Von Rosenberg Reef in FH-7. Kirk Loy with ETV was taken out on a followup trip to see how this 14 month old reef was progressing. Visibility was excellent and juvenille Amberjack were flooding the reef (250-300 count). Most were not yet of legal size, but there were several large red snapper (8-10) and grouper (8-10) sited also. A nice size school (75-100) of vermillion snapper (beeliners) were seen as well as Triggers, Mangrove Snapper, Redfish, and a Blue Angel.
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Email Author: Mark@primofish.com