Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.

Activity Report for the Period
May 9 - June 13, 2013

Summary
During this period there was a trip on June 2 to document Idle Iron Rig VK203A, and a trip on June 8 to FH-13 for reef monitoring. The heavy utilization of the reefs limited the work to the 070306F Limestone Pyramids. The conditions were poor.

Click Here for the PDF Version of this Report.

VK203A Platform - on the BSEE removal list
Position: 29°46.888'N / 88°19.982'W 123' Depth

With all the talk about the Idle Iron project and the destruction of valuable fish habitat, MGFB decided to fund a project to show just what is being removed. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is the agency that oversees this activity. Find out more about them at http://bsee.gov. There were several videos in the news showing platforms being blown up and the large amounts of dead red snapper floating to the surface, but nobody has made a video showing what lies beneath the surface. Johnny Marqquez, Mississippi CCA Director, provided a list of Platforms that have applied for removal and this one was picked for this video. This particular platform is in 123 feet of water and has several smaller single pipes within close proximity. The video clearly shows the multitude of fish that will be lost. Some topside fishing is also documented and shows the loss of economic stimulus that will happen. View the video at http://youtu.be/V7Y-RHGIemA



070306F Limestone Pyramids
Position: 30°01.953'N / 88°30.651'W 76' Depth

This grouping of Pyramids are located a little west of the Southern Star Shrimp Boat in FH-13. We initially planned to look at the Southern Star since her rigging was cut off, but boats were already fishing her as they were many of the reefs. Conditions were poor near the bottom with less than 2 feet of visibility. Only a single pyramid was located and it was deep into a sink hole with the highest point measuring 80 feet of depth and the lowest point about 85 feet of depth. The surrounding depth in this area is 76 feet. This shows the bottom is a little too soft to support these structures in this area and it is suspected that similar conditions exist throughout FH-13. We left this location and tried to find something taller that would come up into the clearer water but multiple boats were on all reefs in FH-13 including the St. John, Tuan Phong, Mike Jenner, DISH, and the Eckstein. We then aborted monitoring efforts and went to the East to look for more solitude.
















HOME = http://mgfb.org/

Mark Primo Miller
PO Box 1737
Gautier, MS 39553
Phone:512-677-4661 (512-MPRIMO1)
PRIMOFISH   or   PRIMO Computer Engineering