Summary of Trips

Two trips were made during the fiscal month of April, 1993. On May 30, a trip was made to the newly created Rubble #8 in the Bill Walker Site (FH-2). A return trip was made to the same site on June 6. The purpose was to document early development of the site and make observations of new marine life there.

FH-2 Rubble #8

This reef was created on May 5, 1993 and consists of concrete rubble from the old Sears Town shopping center in Pascagoula and from Mississippi Power Company, Plant Daniel. It is in 55 feet of water with a least depth reading of 37 feet due to the 8' X 20' culvert which landed vertically. The Loran position is 12433.2, 47044.5.

An initial observation of the reef was made after 3 days of age on May 8. The observations revealed it completely void of marine life except for one remora clinging to the towering culvert.

After 25 days of age, the May 30 trip showed thousands of cigar minnows clouding the waters as well as 12-15 juvinelle red snapper (less than 8 inches), 10-15 Tom Tates, a couple black snapper, Triggers, and a single squirrel fish. Barnacles were about an eighth inch tall with some algae growth showing and even a few blennies were sighted. Less than a dozen near legal size red snapper were sighted just at the end of the dive.

It was interesting to see an increase in the number of legal size red snapper on the June 6 dive when 30-35 of these fish were sighted. Only a half dozen or less of the juvenille red snapper and Tom Tates were seen on this dive, but they could have been skirted away from view by the activity of the larger fish. Two triggers were seen on this dive as well, but they were double the size of those seen a week earlier. Also a pair of black snapper were sighted as well as a lone sheepshead. The immense cloud of thousands of cigar minnows were still schooling throughout the dive.

Visibility on both dives were about 20-30 feet on the bottom, 30-40 feet in the mid-water, and 10-15 feet near the surface. This allowed for some decent video footage to be taken. This reef is apparently off to a good start showing it is developing a home for bait fish and other smaller fish in the food chain as well as smaller juvenille game fish.