Summary of Trips

During the fiscal month of November, three successful trips were made along with one aborted trip. These trips were made to sink the concrete rubble donated by Chevron at the Shallow Liberty Ships. In conjunction with this project, buoys were placed on the Shallow Ships (FH-3), the Ship Island Barges (FH-4), and the Squash Channel Barge (FH-5).

During the past month 106 fish were tagged and released. Five previously tagged fish was reported recaptured. Four of these being warsaw grouper, and one a red snapper.

The Chevron Rubble Project

This project was put together by members Emmet Fowler, Paul Kensler, and Mark Miller. Emmet and Paul work for Chevron and became aware of the material and Chevron's need to dispose of it. They provided Mark with the proper contacts whom he wrote to propose the project. The response was very positive. Colle Towing of Pascagoula was the selected contractor by the organization at the September meeting of the Fishing Banks. Efforts were coordinated between Mark, Emmet and John Colle to complete the job.

The first trip went out on November 1, 1990. An attempt on the second load was made November 15, 1990. Seas began building quite severely (5'-8') and efforts were abandoned. The second load was successfully brought out on November 19. The third load was finally brought out on December 11 after waiting on the weather. Conditions on the first two trips were relatively favorable, but the water currents were strong enough that the barge was continually being moved in circles within the site. This means the material is somewhat scattered. Conditions for the third trip were extremely favorable allowing the barge to sit relatively still thus giving a more concentrated deployment of material.

It is very difficult to give an exact description of how the material scattered due to the small area involved (0.3 X 1.0 microseconds). Dive trips or side scan sonar will be needed for more accuracy, but in the meantime a diagram is attached which gives my best accountability of the material at this time. Most of the rubble is around LORAN coordinates 12319.2-.5, 47061.4-.5, 29515.6-.8 which is 100' to 200' northeast of the yellow buoy.

The Shallow Liberty Ship buoy (FH-3) was placed during the first trip (November 1, 1990), and the other two buoys were placed during the last trip (December 11, 1990). All buoys were placed a hundred feet or so to the southwest of the reef material they mark. The Shallow Ship Buoy is almost directly on the southwest corner boundary. The buoys are located as follows.

Shallow Liberty Ships Buoy (FH-3): 12319.1 47061.3 29515.4

Ship Island Barges Buoy (FH-4): 12227.1 47061.1 29425.6

Squash Channel Barge Buoy (FH-5): 12263.5 47063.1 29463.2

Fish Tagging Update

Last month 106 new fish were tagged and released while only five tagged fish were recaptured. Billy Rogers tagged three and Mark Miller tagged the rest. Many more snapper could have been tagged had the supply of tags not been depleted, however, the new tags have finally arrived.

Warsaw grouper seem to have been feeding exceedingly well this past month. Four of the five reported recaptures were warsaws and one of them was recaught twice. Another one of them was recaught only three hours after it was tagged!

Mark Miller originally tagged warsaw #00971 on 10-7-90 measuring 21.2 inches. Miller recaught the fish again 42 days later with a measurement of 22.4 inches. Mark Ross of Pascagoula reported capturing the same fish 7 days after that with a measurement of 23 inches.

Mark Miller reported tagging warsaw #00175 on 11-18-90 at 19.7 inches. He reports recapturing the fish after leaving the structure and stopping there again three hours later on the way in!

George Hopkins reported recapturing warsaw #41245 while fishing the modules. The tag was unfamiliar to him and was apparently from a fishing tournament. It was traced to Fish Trackers of Texas who reports the original release was by a James E. Lee some 153 days earlier. James gave his release position as 20 miles south of Pascagoula. The information on this fish and the others are summarized below. Tag #00098 was the only Red Snapper.

Tagged Fish Recaptures

(for past month of November)

Tag Num Date-1 Date-2 Size-1 Size-2 Growth Rate/Mo.

00971 10/07/9011/18/90 21.20" 22.40" 1.20" 0.86"

00971 11/18/9011/25/90 22.40" 23.00" 0.60" 2.57"

41245 6/24/9011/24/90 11.00" 13.50" 2.50" 0.49"

00098 10/14/9012/11/90 15.10" 15.80" 0.70" 0.36"

00175 11/18/9011/18/90 19.70" 19.70" 3 hour lapse

Table One