Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.

Activity Report for the Period
October 9 thru November 13, 2008

Summary
During this period there was one construction trip and one dive monitoring trip. On October 11, the landing craft “Elsie M” was deployed in FH-1 and the Shrimp Boat “St. Elmo” was deployed in FH-2 . On October 26, a dive monitoring trip was attempted to Pyramids in FH-13 and FH-2, but extremely poor visibility rendered the trip fruitless.

This deployment was initially scheduled for October 10. DMR Communication with the Spotter Boat in the morning indicated the schedule was behind several hours due to problems with a bridge opening, but the trip was still on. The Spotter Boat arrived on site and waited all day, but the contractor never showed. Upon return and calling the DMR, it was learned that the contractor was forced to postpone the work until the next day on October 11. A scheduling conflict prevented the Spotter Boat from meeting him on the 11th, but the DMR was able to perform the spotter operations and provide the information for this report. It was reported that the St. Elmo was first taken to FH-2 and was taking a while to fill with water so the Elsie M was then taken and deployed in FH-1. The contractor then returned to FH-2 and finished the deployment of the St. Elmo Shrimp Boat.

The dive attempt on October 26 was met with very milky water that persisted thru the water column. Visibility at the bottom was near zero with no light being able to penetrate below about 60 feet. The effort was obviously aborted.

081011a Elsie M Landing Craft, 490F1
Position: Position: 30°03.185'N / 88°36.945'W

This 50' X 16' Landing Craft was donated by the Gulf Islands National Seashore after replacing the aged vessel. They used this vessel to transfer equipment from the mainland to the National Seashore Islands off Mississippi. The vessel was anchored around 11AM and took a little less than an hour and a half to sink in the 66 feet of water. It had about 6 feet of relief off the bottom.




081011b St. Elmo Shrimp Boat 491F2
Position: 30°04.820'N / 88°33.278'W

This 70' Steel Hull Shrimp Boat washed ashore in Pass Christian Harbor during Hurricane Gustav. The Harbor had a lien on the Vessel and somehow obtained ownership and donated it to the DMR. The DMR Derelict Vessel Program paid 100% to recover the Vessel, environmentally clean it, and deploy it in FH-2. It sank at about 1:25PM in about 58 feet of water in FH-2 with about 14 feet of relief off the bottom.



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Author: Mark Primo Miller, Gautier, MS 39553