Artificial Reef in the GTA?

[wes]

Let me first apologize if this question has been previously beaten to death...

Toronto is the most densly populated city in Canada, it stands to reason there are a lot of divers in Toronto. Yet the closest artificial reef is a 3 hour drive away in Kingston.

Are there divers out there like me who'd like the idea of going for a quick dive after work; perhaps on a retired HMS warship, etc...or do most divers in the GTA prefer doing their diving elsewhere?

[Butch103]

Not being picky, but there are no reefs in Kingston...Are there?

Just wrecks yep......

To answer your question, I would be interested in a warship, if it was sunk. Not some old tanker sunk for the hell of it.

Something of historical signifigance...



wes once bubbled...
Let me first apologize if this question has been previously beaten to death...

Toronto is the most densly populated city in Canada, it stands to reason there are a lot of divers in Toronto. Yet the closest artificial reef is a 3 hour drive away in Kingston.

Are there divers out there like me who'd like the idea of going for a quick dive after work; perhaps on a retired HMS warship, etc...or do most divers in the GTA prefer doing their diving elsewhere?

[taz22]

Butch103 once bubbled...
Not being picky, but there are no reefs in Kingston...Are there?

Just wrecks yep......

To answer your question, I would be interested in a warship, if it was sunk. Not some old tanker sunk for the hell of it.

Something of historical signifigance...



The one thing with history it can happen, but the more manufactured it is, the less value attributed to it for the most part.

Take the Speigel Grove sunk off Key Largo last year, while a nice wreck to dive it is just far to sanitized to really enjoy it as much as a wreck that has sunk by accident. I'd much prefer to dive the Lillie Parsons time and time again then do dive the Speigel or Duane, simply for the act that it is the history and the mystic of the wreck that keeps me coming back for more. Each wreck has a unique story, take the Gaskin and the fact it sank three times before resting where it does now, the J.B. King that sank after the lighting strike etc etc etc.

[Ontario Diver]

But I'd like to see some more "diver friendly wreck-like playgrounds" like the Wolfe Islander II.

It would be good to have a few places where neophyte divers can practise their skills on before enjoying high-impact diving on our favourite real wrecks....

[MWC]

I'd love to have a "wreck" to dive around Toronto. However, there is one huge snag. The only sheltered water around Toronto is Toronto Harbour. Diving is (or at least was) severly restricted in the Harbour. IIIRC you had to get permission from the Habourmaster (Federal) for a particular location at a particular time, and I don't think it was rubber stamp type permission either. Now, if we could find the right location, we might be able to negotiate a blanket approval for diving at that one spot. When I'm back down in Toronto (early next month) I'd be willing to do some calling to find out if there would be a location that would even be remotely feasible.

If we're outside of the Harbour, the shortest fetch is 30 miles, and an easterly has a 160 mile fetch. That would tend to limit the number of really good diving days.

Matt

[Doppler]

Great idea but as Matt has already said: "where?"

Now there are some neat potential spots down towards Oakville and the round part of the Golden Horseshoe...

[Scuba Duffer]

No interest here. My wife and I will continue to head for southern areas when we want to dive. We just can't get interested in diving these cold/green waters.

[sparky30]

You should try Brockville in the summer.. water is 75 deg top to bottom, very nice an clear.. I've had visibility in excess of 80 ft..
Granted, we have some pretty boring sea life compared to down south, but our wrecks are pretty neat...

[sparky30]

There are over a dozen known wrecks off St. Catharines, but nobody wants to share the coordinates.. Its all being kept secret disguised as an archeological dig... Disappointing...
I'd love to see some more wrecks opened up closer to home.
There was some talk about sinking the old burned out pirate ship/restaurant that's sitting in Jordan harbour... That would make a cool dive site..

[canuckdiver]

who is it that owns that boat at jordan harbour right now?

[sparky30]

It burned a few months ago..Looks even more interesting now :)
I'll try to dig up some more info for you.

[Tom R]

LA GRANDE HARMINE ENR burnt in January of this year. The Owners have not come forward to claim her, so one would believe she is abandoned.

I found this picture in the boatnerd news www.boatnerd.com

[canuckdiver]

anybody have any input on what the procedure would be to approach the proper authorities about salvage rights to this vessel?

Who would one talk to?

I'm not referring to turning it into an artificial reef at this point, more referring to getting the rights of possesion to the vessel.

(so no MOE at this point):D

[deep_ocean]

now that sounds sweet. somebody pinch me

:)

[boney]

Isn't there some sort of "tire" dumping place further west of Niagra (maybe around port colbourne(sp?)) that is used like an artificial reef? I think I just read about it last night in a book, but it was late last night and after I got back from hockey so I'm not quite sure.... Are you talking about doing something like that or something on a larger scale with boats...
What about an artificial reef made up of old scapped cars???

[wetbehindtheear]

From what I've seen & read, tires make bad reefs. They are tied together and sunk, and often fall apart, float away, etc. There is one place in the US where they are trying to see how much it will cost to remove them.

A much better option are the large concrete pyramid X shaped things they used to build the breakwater around the Hong Kong airport. Basically, you take an X, and then add a 3rd leg perpendicular to the plane formed by the other two. They lock together underwater, making a very stable reef with lots of surface area.

[D M I]

Hello

This is an old issue guys. Years ago the ministry of fisheries and Pier Trudeau's son Jason used a submarine to find a suitable location for sinking a wreck around Toronto harbor. The only area they concluded that was suitable and was not a fish spawning area was a sand bar region off of Oackville. As with all ideas for Toronto there were more "why we cants" than "why we could"s from elected officials and it was slowly forgotten. If you do not have the political backing your not going to get it. The war ship in Kingston was put on the back burner because the town ship of Kingston had to share moneys earned from the dive charters with parks Canada were the ship was to be sunk, so again politics blew it all to hell. The best bet I can see in getting a wreck around Toronto out side of the Harbor commissions and police marine units turf is for an actual freighter accident and sinking.

D M I

[Jimmy B]

DMI

What are you basing the money sharing info on?

JB

[D M I]

The town ship of Kingston and private idealist came up with the idea of sinking the war ship but the actual location for sinking was to be in parks canada's water, either way its history now.

D M I

[deepdiver5by5]

A wreck around T.O. would be great, but there is not anyone in the area that could pull it off. The people that could do it, Dive stores(whats left) would want to make money from it. By the way DMI I think you are right about the warship in Kingston -NO MONEY MADE THEY DROPPED IT. If you want to dive around the GTA start looling for wrecks yourself.
deepdiver5by5

[D M I]

Hi

Actually there are none wrecks off the southern side of center island like the Davies, at 130' in black, cold water. This wreck is coverd in wire and splaterd all over the place down there.

D M I