Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.
Activity Report for the Period
February 13 thru March 13, 2014

Summary
During this period there were two reef monitoring trips. On February 16, a trip was made to FH-7 with a dive conducted on the Jumbo Barge. Visibility was less than 5 feet and severely hampered efforts. On March 8, a trip was made to FH-13 but poor visibility limited the efforts to a single dive on the Mike Jenner Tug Boat.

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860701 Jumbo Barge 125F7
Position: 29°36.870'N / 88°24.593'W 130'Depth This large Sea-Going Barge was deployed in 1986, but few details were recorded at the time. It is estimated to be around 400 feet in length with a two story wheel house. At one time the water clearance was less than 90 feet and held an ambundance of Amberjack but now it is around 112 feet and the AJs are absent. Platform MP166 is nearby and is holding AJs. Visibility was good to about 80 feet but dropped to about 5 feet below that which severely hampered observations. However observations still revealed a healthy population of Red Snapper, TomTates, and Vermillion Snapper. Soft Corals littered the deck and puffer fish were sighted too. There was a significant silt layer over the deck as well. No lionfish were observed on the Barge itself, but several were seen on nearby Platform MP166.


060624 Mike Jenner Reef 435F13
Position: 29°59.527'N / 88°29.610'W 060624 Video: http://youtu.be/0TFx2TJIiR4
This 145' River Tug Boat is sitting upright in about 86' of water near the southwest corner of FH-13. Deployed post Hurricane Katrina, this vessel offers the highest relief in FH-13 at about 52 feet of water clearance. For this reason, this reef is often chosen as the initial dive so water visibility can be evaluated closer to the bottom. While the wheel house did offer sufficient visibility for observations, it quickly dropped below that level so no other dives were conducted this day. Fish observations were weak and showed a population of Spadefish (75- 100) but only a few Sheepshead (3/3-6lbs), Scamp (2/1-2lbs), and Red Snapper (2/2-20 lbs). Contrary to January’s visit, no tropical fish were sighted such as Cocoa Damsels and Angels. However the Sea Cucumber and several healthy Spiny Urchins were observed just as they were on January 12.

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