Texas getting serious about artificial reef?

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78 artificial reefs already installed off the coast of Texas, has anybody dived them, what are they like?
 
Ditto.... 6 miles out is a easy trip even for me
 
Seems like they are designating this a fishing mecca for anglers. And in 60-70' of Mississippi-tainted gulf waters, would anyone really be diving this regularly? Especially with the threat of getting caught by day fishermen?
 
The diving at the POC site will be crappy on a really good day. It is designed for fishing and fish habitat, not so much for diving. We are also working on a nearshore site near South Padre Island that will be 1650 acres (10x the size of the one in the article) that might be okay for diving since the water down there is cleaner more often. I have yet to dive the area so I don't know what it's like regularly.

For divers we are working on a new ship to sink, possibly as soon as this fall. I'll post more about that next week since I am headed down to the cleanup site this Friday for a site visit. The ship will not be 6 miles offshore though, it'll be 60 (if memory serves me correctly). Unfortunately due to the geology of Texas it has to be that far offshore to get the depth and the clarity.

-Chris
 
78 artificial reefs already installed off the coast of Texas, has anybody dived them, what are they like?

The majority of the diveable ones are reefed oil and gas platforms, and they can be completely awesome. The structures are huge and it's a unique environment where you get both bottom obligate reef fish species and open ocean pelagics in the same spot. The down side is they are deep, generally starting at 85', and a long ways offshore. Not remotely beginner friendly diving, but could be a tech divers dream if someone would run charters.

The further south you go in Texas the closer the clear water and the quicker it gets deep. American Diving on South Padre Island runs trips out to the Clipper and a few rigs on a regular basis during the summer. It looks like I'll be headed out with them this Saturday for a Clipper trip.

-Chris
 
For divers we are working on a new ship to sink, possibly as soon as this fall. I'll post more about that next week since I am headed down to the cleanup site this Friday for a site visit. The ship will not be 6 miles offshore though, it'll be 60 (if memory serves me correctly). Unfortunately due to the geology of Texas it has to be that far offshore to get the depth and the clarity.

-Chris

Glad to hear an update on this project will be released soon. I came onto the board today to see if anything had been updated yet on this project.
 
Some good dive locations off the Texas coast would be nice. And close than 100 miles to shore would be even better. Looking forward to updates.
 
Following
 
Thanks for your post chris great job The Kittna is down off corpus Close in Does anybody dive it ? The Galveston ship will be about 65 miles out but the seabed will be only 140 ft down plus there are reef sites of rigs close to it Old divers used to dive the bucceeneer rigs which are now a reef site but few people dive it.now The best time to dive the gulf is aug sept and october off texas fill your tanks get a boat and go dive.
 
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