YES! Dive Miami's BS game FAILS! FWC endorses Pensacola

[Genesis]

The B.S. Parade failed, and so did South Florida politics.

I love it.

The FWC has voted to recommend the site off Pensacola for the Carrier Oriskany - for the second time.

Of note is that at DEMA, the "Dive Miami Alliance" managed to hoodwink PADI into sending an email to their pros asking them to lobby the FWC and the Florida Legislature to force the carrier to SE Florida - strongly intimating that if the FWC didn't recommend it go there, it wouldn't recommend anything.

Unfortunately, that was a lie. The FWC had already voted to place the carrier of Escambia county. Dive Miami has been running a "countdown clock" for over a year on their web site for deployment in SE Florida - the problem is that they NEVER HAD THE CARRIER nor a recommendation for its placement - yet they presented this as if it was a fait acccompli to many, both publically and to PADI. PADI fell for it and issued an "emergency" email request.

Just a couple of days later, after PADI got a LOT of calls and letters about this (including from me!) they rescinded this letter, "clarifying" that they had no preference on WHERE the carrier went. In my discussions with PADI, they stated quite clearly that they simply did not have the full story, and were pressed to issue the email as an "emergency"..... that they were hoodwinked became pretty clear when the retraction came a couple of days later.

Well, it appears that the BS artists lost. The FWC has voted to retain the Escambia County site.

Florida's bid will be for Escambia County, approximately 22 miles from the Pensacola Pass, and about the same distance or a bit more from the Destin Pass. The wreck will be a haven for both divers and fishermen, with diving available from the top of the tower at 50' down to the keel at well over 200'.

http://myfwc.com/whatsnew/03/oriskany3-st.html

 

[newdiverAZ]

how can you imagine, other than the fact that this is in your backyard that this site is better than south florida?

 

[Rick Murchison]

newdiverAZ once bubbled...
how can you imagine, other than the fact that this is in your backyard that this site is better than south florida?

Dangerous currents at the south Florida proposed site.
Rick

 

[Genesis]

SE Florida has dozens of quality dive sites in the form of artificial wrecks.

We have ZERO large artificially-sunk wrecks. We have exactly one "large" ship offshore to dive, the Ozark, which is 40nm offshore and in over 300' of water. She is simply inaccessible to virtually everyone due to distance and depth.

Should Miami get ALL of the artificial reef resource? Why? So we can attract even more people to the area who will dump even more sewage into the water and do even more damage to the reefs that are dying up and down the east coast of Florida to the Keys?

Second, our environment here at that site is wonderful. Diving conditions are fabulous most of the time. I know - I dive this area, including the general area of the deployment. 100' vis is not uncommon. There is no 2-3 knot current screaming over the area virtually all the time, as there is in SE Florida. There is also no temperature inversion. And its not that far out either - my usual "day on the water" when diving spans some 70nm - a 20nm run to a site is not unusual, nor problematic.

Miami was, IMHO, being pigheaded here. Escambia not only should get this ship, this area should get several more. Its not like there is some shortage, you know. There are over four hundred decommissioned military and merchant marine vessels that can be deployed as artificial reefs, all in mothballs, none with any economic value as vessels. Miami is welcome to a reasonable number of them, but let's spread them around, up and down the coast of Florida and the other coastal states.

What Dive Miami did was play "fait accompli" from the outset. The entire web page and way they presented their case was bogus. Their "gang bang" mentality that they presented at DEMA was outrageous, and what they pulled with PADI was even worse. The claims on their web page - that they have "all the major agencies on board" - is pure fantasy. I know, because I talked with PADI directly, and further, PADI issued a retraction of the email they originally were badgered to send out to their Pros - it turns out that the Dive Miami folks didn't bother to mention to PADI that there was already an accepted bid in for the carrier off Pensacola - they led them to believe that it was Miami or nowhere!

When the truth came out, the retraction by PADI soon followed.

What ELSE is a pure invention in their claims? BTW, that "all agencies on board" claim is only a few days old. The PADI blow-up was immediately after DEMA - they just carefully "omitted" it.

The Oriskany is of value not just as a dive and fishing site, but also as a memorial to all the naval aviators who came through Pensacola NAS - that is, virtually ALL OF THEM during and since WWII.

Is it better for it to be placed here? Absolutely. It will receive FAR less pressure here than it would in SE Florida. That amounts to better preservation and a longer useful life. Material? Maybe, maybe not. It is a memorial for each and every naval aviator that was trained in Pensacola and who served our country defending our freedoms. Its one ship - and one important ship to those who fought in those wars and to the complement of Pensacola NAS - one of the most important, and most active, naval aviation centers in the US, even today. Pensacola NAS is, among other things, home to the Blue Angels - the Navy's signature "show" team.

More importantly, this carrier is a model for the 399 other vessels that can be similarly "scrapped" in this fashion. If people will lie, cheat, and intentionally misrepresent to get this one, why should the US Government give the rest of them to us as divers at all?

 

[DennisS]

We have more than enough tourists down here. Hopefully this "wreck" will attract attention to other parts of Florida. Feel free to take as many of them as you like.

 

[CAPT HOOK]

you realize that the ship will now more than likely end up somewhere like Texas!

 

[Genesis]

But if it does, then it does.

Lying, cheating and acts of fraudulent misrepresentation must NEVER be rewarded.

 

[100days-a-year]

Oh,were there lawyers representing Miami?

 

[aue-mike]

See my response at:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=438317#post438317