Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.

Activity Report for the Period
September 11 - October 8, 2014

Summary
During this period there was one reef monitoring trip and one construction trip. On September 17, 2014, a trip was made to FH-13 to deploy a barge load of Juvenile Reef Fish Habitat Cages around Pyramids 547F13 and 548F13 deployed on Sept 25, 2013.The purpose of these cages is for the recruitment of zero year class reef fish. The material was supplied and deployed by the DMR using the MGFB permitted reef site FH-13. On Oct 5 a trip was made to the Capt Le to assess her final resting conditions after being repositioned to allow 50 feet of water clearance. Following that, a visit was made to FAD1 which was tied to the 070306F Pyramids in FH-13 on August 10. Visits were made on August 10, 23, Sept 6, and now Oct 5.

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140917a&b Juvenile Cages 550/551F13
Position: 30°03.441'N/88°31.554'W 68'Depth
Position: 30°03.567'N/88°31.903'W 68'Depth(Pyramids 547F13 & 548F13, respectively)
Video: http://youtu.be/Q5DnDpyvCcY

Cages Web Gallery
J.E.Borries deployed this barge load of juvenile fish habitat cages around Pyramids 547F13 and 548F13 where 34 Pyramids were deployed in 2 groupings on Sept 25, 2013. They were deposited 2 at a time in groups of four with a planned pattern and actual pattern as shown in the pictures below.


The actual recorded coordinates taken are: 547F13 130925a: 1280-3003.446/8831.632, 1272-3003.462/8831.567, 1273-3003.457/8831.528, 1274-3003.437/8831.523, 1275-3003.433/8831.482, 1276-3003.407/8831.532, 1277-3003.404/8831.556, 1278-3003.410/8831.585, 1279-3003.434/8831.601

548F13 130925b: 1281-3003.591/8831.911, 1282-3003.581/8831.870, 1283-3003.560/8831.866, 1234-3003.542/8831.877, 1233-3003.539/8831.935, 1284-3003.565/8831.943.

The planned coordinates were: 547F13: 1-3003 .474/88 31 .554, 2-3003 .464/8831.527, 3-3003.441/8831.516, 4-3003.441/8831.478, 5-3003 .418/8831.527, 6-3003.408/8831.554, 7-3003.418/ 8831.581, 8-3003.441/8831.592, 9-3003.441/8831.626, 10-3003.464/8831.581.

548F13: 1-3003.597/8831.903, 2-3003.590/8831.876, 3-3003.567/8831.865, 4-3003.567/8831.827, 5-3003.544/8831.876, 6-3003.534/8831.903,7-3003.544/8831.930, 8-3003.567/8831.941, 9-3003.567/8831.979, 10-3003.590/8831.930

140825 Capt Le 549F13
Position: 30°3002.903'N 88°31.219'W
Video: http://youtu.be/l3OdTnKd5zE

Gallery: Capt Le Web Gallery
The Capt Le is a 74' shrimp boat that collided with a 130' Crew Boat on August 25, 2014 and sank within FH-13 in 70 feet of water as reported by WLOX. Initially the Vessel was pointed bow down into the bottom with only 12 feet of water over the Stern. Bosarge Diving of Pascagoula recovered the fuel and oil and then pulled the Vessel out of the hole and confirmed the required 50 feet of water clearance on this permitted reef site. The Vessel moved about 85 feet to the South at the updated coordinates listed above. This visit confirmed the clearance and also retrieved some hazardous rope that was floating above the structure. The Capt Le was first visited by MGFB on September 6, 2014 and reported on at the September 11 MGFB Meeting.

140810 FAD1 Visit
Video: http://youtu.be/SdZiI6zWhcY

Gallery: FAD1 Web Gallery
FAD1 which was deployed in FH-13 on August 10, 2014, revisited on August 23, and visited again on September 6.The reef is doing very well and providing excellent enhancement to the Pyramid Grouping it is attached to.

130925B Limestone Pyramids 548F13
Position: 30°03.567'N/88°31.903'W
Video: http://youtu.be/2sCT3Im2UqY
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Web Gallery
Finally a quick visit was made to the 548F13 Pyramids in FH-13 which are about a year old (Sept 25, 2013) and recently (Sept 17, 2014) had some juvenile habitat cages deployed around them. It was hoped to try and look at the new cages but an attempt was not made due to the relatively poor visibility on the bottom. This reef is recruiting a good population of Red Snapper, Mangroves, Cobia, and even juvenile Amberjack. It was noted that this grouping of 17 Pyramids seemed to do better than the 2007 groupings of 4-6 units each.


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