Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.

Activities Report for June, 1992

Submitted by

Mark P. Miller

Date of Report

July 9, 1992

Activity Report for June, 1992

Summary of Trips

Two trips were made during the fiscal month of June. Both trips were made to deposit reef material in the Bill Walker Site (FH-2). The material consisted of rubble from Pascagoula's King William Hotel, Pascagoula's old Coast Guard Station, scrap concrete from Mississippi Power Company (Plant Daniel), two helicopter bodies from Keesler AFB, 6 bundles of bed frames from Keesler AFB, and scrap metal from Colle Towing. During the second trip, buoys were placed on both the Horn Island Barge Site (FH-1) and the Bill Walker Site (FH-2). Due to the reef construction efforts, no reef monitoring dives were made this past month.

During the past month, 27 new fish were reported tagged and released by Mark Miller. Five red snapper was reported recaptured.

Rubble #6

The first barge load went out on June 24, 1992. The material consisted of most of the King William's Hotel rubble and concrete slabs from the old Coast Guard Station in Pascagoula. This reef target is being referred to as Rubble #6 although it is the first pile of rubble in FH-2. Rubble sites #1 through #4 were deposited on FH-1 in 1987, and Rubble #5 (the Chevron Rubble) was deposited on FH-1 last year. The drift area for Rubble #6 is at LORAN coordinates 12426.0-.9, 47044.4-.8, and 29602.0-3.1. A verified sounding hit was made at 12426.4, 47044.7, 29602.7.

Rubble #7

The second barge load went out on July 7, 1992. The material consisted of the rest of the King Williams Hotel rubble, scrap concrete from Mississippi Power Company's Plant Daniel, the rest of the Keesler Bed Frames (six bundles), the two Keesler Helicopter bodies, 3 pieces of a galvanized walkway from Chevron, and scrap metal from Colle Towing (including an old tug's smoke stack). The drift area for Rubble #7 is at LORAN coordinates 12432.3-.9, 47043.7-.9, and 29607.5-8.0. This places it near the center of the Bill Walker Site (FH-2) around the broken pieces of Modules 23-24 listed as #33 on the FH-2 orientation sheet. Comparative monitoring of both Rubble #6 and #7 are planned over the next year to see how their development differs since Rubble #7 is acting as replenishment to an existing reef.

For future monitoring and interested divers, the scrap metal and smoke stack were verified at 12432.5-.4, 47043.9-.0, 29607.8. Chopper #1 and a large piece of scrap metal were verified at 12432.6, 47043.8, and 29607.8-.7. The dome of this chopper was damaged during off-loading. Chopper #2 was verified about 150 away southwesterly at 12432.4-.3, 47043.8-.7, 29607.5. The tail of this chopper was damaged during off-loading. Both choppers were loaded with 400-500 lbs. of concrete each to deter movement.

Buoys - FH-1 & FH-2

In conjunction with the second trip, two complete buoy systems were placed on both the Horn Island Barge Site (FH-1) and the Bill Walker Site (FH-2). The LORAN coordinates of the FH-1 buoy are 12405.5-.6, 47037.7, 29574.8. The coordinates of the FH-2 buoy are 12433.8-.9, 47043.8, and 29609.0-.1. These coordinates will help boaters calibrate their LORANs to the one used for MGFB's work. They can also give boaters a reference point to find structure with an orientation sheet, even without a LORAN.

Both buoys were of the yellow spar type being obtained from Urethane Technologies of Port Allen, Louisiana. The FH-2 buoy had been waiting for a project to go out on for several months. The FH-1 buoy was ordered as a replacement for the original 2˝ year old design. This replacement was attempted on April 5, 1992 but failed due to mis-matching bolt patterns. Observations of the mooring revealed wear that led to MGFB requesting a redesigned mooring system from the buoy manufacturer. The new design substitutes 45' of 1ź" chain for the lower half of the standard ž" chain. There was considerably more wear in this area on the old system. A 1ź" connecting link was suppose to be added where the chain connects to the buoy to minimize the wear there, but it was apparently omitted. Therefore, Colle Towing was asked to weld the final link to the stainless steel mooring plate to help minimize the wear against the hard stainless.

Another problem with previous buoys was having them move off station. The manufacturer insists the anchor weight must land correctly. The weight of the chain had been causing the anchors to land upside down allowing the chain to lift and slide the weight across the sea floor. To combat this problem, some rope was used to stop the anchor about 5 feet short from hitting the bottom. This allowed the anchor to right itself before cutting the rope and allowing the anchor to sit correctly on the bottom. A follow up dive showed that the technique worked successfully.

Fish Tagging Update

During the past month, 27 new fish were reported tagged and released by Mark Miller. Five red snapper was reported recaptured.

Mark Miller recaptured one of his own red snapper (3216) about a month later, Glyn Hilbun of Moss Point recaptured one of Mark's red snapper (3201) about a month later, Bobby Penton of Ocean Springs recaptured one of Ken Dropco's red snapper (3016) over 5 months later and Jason Steckler recaptured two of Mark Miller's red snapper (3211 and 3371) one to two months later but did not have an accurate measurement. All snapper appear to have been captured at the same exact location released. The data and growth summaries are shown below in Table One.

Tagged Fish Recaptures

(for past month of June, 1992)

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

3216 6/05/92 7/04/92 12.3" 12.7" 0.4" 0.41"

3201 5/09/92 6/16/92 12.7" 14.6" 1.9" 1.50"

3016 1/25/92 7/04/92 12.0" 14.5" 2.5" 0.47"

3211 5/22/92 7/04/92 13.2" ? ? ?

3371 5/03/92 7/04/92 12.0" ? ? ?

Table One