Summary of Trips

Three trips were made during the fiscal month of February. A visit was made to Module 3 in FH-2 on March 2, 1992 to make observations of a "low relief" module. On March 4, a trip was made to supervise a reef construction project to sink 18 of the 24 bundles of bed frames acquired from Keesler Air Force Base. On March 8, a trip was made to the Ship Island Barges in FH-4 to conduct routine observations and take routine height measurements. Afterwards, a stop was made to Squash Channel Barge "B" in FH-5 to resecure the end of a 3" rope that was reported to be floating at the surface.

During the past month, 147 new fish were reported tagged and released by Mark Miller. Fifteen red snapper were reported recaptured.

Module 3 at FH-2

Module 3 is listed as #14 on the Orientation Sheet and is located just East of the Bill Walker in FH-2 at 12443.5, 47044.1, and 29618.9. This places it about 8.2 miles at 195 from Horn Island Pass, 5.5 miles at 184 from Horn Island Pass Farewell Buoy, or 15.5 miles at 128 from Dog Keys Pass. It was sunk during November of 1989 along with 84 other similar concrete housing modules during that project. Each module resembles a dormitory room measuring about 30 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 11 feet tall. This particular module fell apart as it sunk, scattering the 6" walls across the bottom laying flat, thus providing very low relief. It was desired to observe how well this low relief structure was producing as compared with previous observations of whole and partially whole modules.

The low relief did not seem to hamper the red snapper population at all, but there did seem to be fewer groupers, spades, and sheepshead. The few sheepshead sighted, however, were of significant size (6-8 lbs. each). The Sheepshead were observed in and around the few holes and cavities of the site as opposed to their typical schooling across the top of the structures. Some over sedimentation of sand was showing on some of the walls, but it was not significant and only serves to camouflage the structure against the bottom. Growth on the structure appeared as barnacles, soft orange corals, and hydra. The game fish sightings are summarized below in Table One.

Keesler Bed Frames Project - Phase One

Some 367 Bed Frames and two Helicopter bodies were obtained from Keesler Air Force Base through Mississippi's Office of Surplus Property. They were bundled into about 24½ separate bundles with about 15 frames to a bundle. Galvanized banding was already present and #4 aluminum tie wire was used as added security.

Pascagoula Commercial Divers was contracted to deploy the material in the FH-2 site utilizing the 100' "Panther" with its 48 feet of deck space. The "Snapper Tapper", a 24' AquaSport, was used as the spotter vessel. At last month's meeting it was decided to break the trip up into two trips to coincide the second trip with deploying some site buoys and allow for concrete to be added to the Chopper Bodies. This initial trip sunk 18½ of the 24 bundles leaving 6 bundles to go with the Chopper Bodies.

They were deployed on March 4, 1992 just east of the "WaterSpout" wreck. The current was running in a mostly West and slightly north direction (about 280). The Panther dropped anchor enough to slow its drift to get a desired spread of material. Thirteen bundles were dropped on the first drift starting at 12432.4, 47044.2-.3, and ending at 12430.2, 47044.4, 29606.1. The remaining 5½ bundles were dropped on the second drift starting at 12432.8, 47044.3, 29608.6 and ending at 12432.0, 47044.3, 29607.9.

The Ship Island Barges FH-4

Barge "A" is a 195' X 35' Hopper Barge sunk on April 18, 1986 and lays with a bow heading of about 150. Barge "B" is a small deck barge that was cabled to the port stern corner of Barge "A" and sunk on October 6, 1987. It has a bow heading of about 135. The barges are located at LORAN coordinates 12227.4, 47061.3, and 29426.1. This places them in 30 feet of water approximately 7.6 miles at 234 from Dog Keys Pass, 5.1 miles at 117 from Ship Island Pass, or 20.5 miles at 262 from Horn Is. Pass.

The fish observations were mostly typical with an abundance of sheepshead and spades. A few very small gag grouper were seen, in fact a hook was removed from one during the dive. Interestingly, no red snapper at all were seen, however, a few black snapper (Mangrove) were sighted. The game fish sightings are summarized on the next page in Table Two.

Structurally, both barges are showing some deterioration, but not significantly. Barge "B" is showing some longitudinal cracks at the edge, especially on the port side. Barge "A" shows more deterioration on the port side as well. Growth on both barges was not substantial and consisted mostly of algae and small barnacles. Water visibility was poor at the bottom (2 feet) and fair (15-20 feet) in the midwater. The visibility made a quick change with the boundary coinciding approximately with the top edge of Barge "A". A large piece of concrete protrudes above the rest of the wreck about midway astern of midships in the center of the hopper. The height measurements going around the corners, starting at the northwest corner, were 11'-0", 11'-6", 11'-2", and 12'-0". The inside corner hopper measurements of Barge "A" were taken for later comparisons. Starting at the northwest corner they were 5'-0", 9'-6", 9'-7", and 5'-10". The southwest corner presented problems in obtaining an accurate measurement due to the blow hole located there. The outside corner measurements of Barge "A" indicate further settlement into the bottom as shown in Table Three. Barge "B" surprisingly showed more relief as shown in Table Four, particularly at the stern. The stern is in contact with Barge "A" and the two barges are apparently interacting there to cause wash outs and shifting that affects the measurements of both barges. In fact, Barge "A" is resting on top of Barge "B" giving the untrue appearance that Barge "B" was sunk first. Also, since the Starboard Stern corner of Barge "B" is underneath Barge "A", a measurement could not be taken there; Instead, a measurement was taken at the intersection of the two barges.

Fish Tagging Update

During the past month, 147 new fish were reported tagged and released by Mark Miller. Fifteen red snapper were reported recaptured. The growth rates and dates are summarized below in Table Five. The most significant recapture was tag 2562 caught by Mike Holiday of Biloxi. It was originally tagged by Mark Miller at the same location. Willie Godwin of Ocean Springs recaught two of Ken Dropco's tagged fish two weeks later (3176 & 3179). Terry Wallace of Ocean Springs recaught one of Ken Dropco's fish (3045) but it was not measured correctly. John Ward of Ocean Springs recaptured two of Mark Miller's fish (2874 & 2869) at the same location. Patty Yutzy recaptured one of Ken's fish (3152), but Ken also reported recapturing that fish on the same day. Ken's measurement showed a decrease in length, however. Ken also reported three other recaptures of his own previously tagged fish (3006, 3009, & 3026) at the same location. Mark Miller recaught four of his own previously tagged fish at the same location (2263, 2201, 2207, & 2477).

Tagged Fish Recaptures

(for past month of February, 1992)

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

2562 6/05/91 2/13/92 13.2" 17.25" 4.05" 0.48"

3176 2/01/92 2/16/92 12.9" 13.25" 0.35" 0.70"

3179 2/01/92 2/16/92 12.7" 13.0" 0.3" 0.60"

3045 1/25/92 3/01/92 13.5" 13.5" 0.0" 0.00"

2874 10/19/91 3/08/92 13.2" 14.0" 0.8" 0.17"

2869 10/19/91 3/08/92 15.0" 16.0" 1.0" 0.21"

2263 2/01/92 3/02/92 13.4" 13.9" 0.5" 0.50"

2201 10/04/91 3/02/92 12.0" 12.4" 0.4" 0.08"

2207 2/01/92 2/21/92 12.9" 12.9" 0.0" 0.00"

2477 1/25/92 2/21/92 12.3" 12.5" 0.2" 0.22"

3152 2/01/92 3/07/92 13.3" 14.0" 0.7" 0.60"

3152 2/01/92 3/07/92 13.3" 12.8" -0.5" -0.43"

3006 2/01/92 3/07/92 12.6" 13.0" 0.4" 0.34"

3009 1/25/92 3/07/92 11.4" 11.7" 0.3" 0.21"

3026 1/25/92 3/07/92 13.2" 13.3" 0.1" 0.07"

Table Five