Sunday, October 18, 2009

The behemoth Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg has been under water for nearly five months, welcoming divers, fishermen and other "life aquatic."

Local and visiting divers are impressed with the size of the ship and the amount of marine life that quickly has taken up residency on it, while dive shop owners are impressed with their bookings and receipts for the summer months.

The world's second-largest artificial reef, billed as a savior for the natural coral reef and the local dive industry, has been fulfilling the environmental and economic promises made throughout its 12 years of project planning, financial shortcomings and permitting obstacles.

Some of the most quantitative data will not be evaluated and reported until next year, and some business owners have stopped short of attributing their busy summer season to the sinking of the Vandenberg, but most anecdotal evidence thus far suggests a success -- both in the water and in the wallet.

In the water

Local diver and renowned underwater photographer Don Kincaid, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, has been documenting the progress of marine life on and around the former military troop transport since the ship landed on the ocean floor on May 27.

He is impressed.

"In four months, it's gone crazy, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "The main thing is, there are lots of juvenile everything."

He has documented juvenile jacks, spiny oysters and other mollusks known as pen shells.

"Additionally, the whole ship is covered with green and red algae, which is the start of the food chain," Kincaid said.

Where there is algae, there are urchins. The long sought-after diadema, or spiny sea urchins, have made themselves comfortable on the Vandenberg, where they are feeding on the red and green algae.

Kincaid's lens has captured images of dime-sized diadema with spikes that are a few inches long.

They are in the midst of a small circle that has been cleared of algae.

"They eat the algae, which then provides a clear surface for coral to attach and grow," he said.

"It's the next step in the food chain, and this is just the beginning."

Other new residents seem to have migrated over from other areas, and the Vandenberg now is home to a few adult Goliath grouper, parrot fish and other common reef fish.

Hundreds of adult yellowtail snapper have been schooling in and around the ship, while a large cobia lurked nearby last week, Kincaid said.

"They wouldn't be hanging around if there wasn't food for them," he said, emphasizing that divers must be cautious and aware of their surroundings when diving the Vandenberg. The current around the wreck can be very strong, and the impending winter winds could pose more challenges, he said.

Bob Holston, owner of Dive Key West, has been thrilled with the results of the new reef.

"It's absolutely the best thing to happen to diving in the Keys," he said. "It has more than fulfilled its promises."

Holston's company offers guided tours of the wreck and requires that divers produce an active and accurate logbook before being allowed to dive the Vandenberg.

"We have one staff member in the water for every four divers," he said, acknowledging the strong current that challenges divers during some weather patterns.

The full moon in June brought with it one such current.

"It was horrendous," Holston said. "So we went through the calendar and marked all the full moons, but then the next one wasn't a problem.

"I wish I could predict the current out there."

Holston said his crew has aborted some Vandenberg dives because of the current, but added that other times they have been able to "drift dive" the wreck, which is a different way to see it.

During a drift dive, divers simply float with the current at a given depth and watch as they float past the ship.

The charter boat then picks them up at the other end of the wreck, rather than requiring divers to fight the current back.

Kincaid said the current never has been too strong for him, but could pose a challenge to some novice divers.

He said all sorts of factors can affect the conditions, but added that often the new moon and full moon offer the least current and best visibility.

Kincaid has not seen any fishermen anchoring or using mooring buoys at the new wreck site yet, but Capt. Chris Norwood, who conducts the monitoring phase of the artificial reef project, said he saw a few fishermen at the Vandenberg last week, but did not know what they were catching.

Norwood, who also owns Florida Straits Diving, spends about 15 days a month at the Vandenberg, either monitoring usage of the reef or diving it with his clients.

During his monitoring trips, Norwood is equipped with binoculars and a clipboard to compare the number of divers and snorkelers entering the water from boats at eight natural reef locations as well as the Vandenberg.

He began his observations of the natural sites a year before the sinking and will continue until next May.

Once the ship has been under water for a year, researchers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will evaluate the data from Norwood, along with logbooks from local dive shops.

"We want to figure out if there's a decrease in the use of the natural reef," said Bill Horn, who heads the wildlife commission's artificial reef program.

"It's way too early to make any sort of call, but hopefully we'll see an increase in the total number of divers, but a decrease in the number of divers on the natural reefs."

More divers mean more money in the tourism-dependent Florida Keys.

In the wallet

Holston estimates his dive business will be up by about 35 percent compared with last year. As of Thursday, he had surpassed what he brought in last October.

"I've got no complaints," he said, adding that his boats have been filled with people from all over the world, including Brazil, Germany and Denmark.

Project organizer Joe Weatherby has dived on the wreck 60 times since it sank.

"It's not for me to say what it's doing economically or environmentally, but I've been involved in the dive industry here for a number of years and I know this is a success," Weatherby said from Pennsylvania this week. A dive group had flown him up to discuss the Vandenberg as the group prepares for a dive trip to Key West.

Every boat Weatherby has boarded has carried divers from other countries who specifically are in town to dive the Vandenberg, he said. But more than visitors, Weatherby is heartened to hear from so many locals who are "dusting off their gear and getting back into the water."

"So many of these locals haven't been in the water for years because they were sick of seeing the mud at Sand Key," Weatherby said. "Now they're back in the water."

While the dive shops report staggering increases, local hotels also had a good summer despite a nationwide recession.

Monroe County Tourist Development Council Director Harold Wheeler acknowledged Key West's successful summer, but did not attribute it solely to the Vandenberg.

Factoring out the 25 percent hike in the bed-tax rate on June 1, Key West's collections for the summer still were up by about 3 percent to 10 percent over last year, he said.

"You can't just nail it down to one thing," Wheeler said. "You also have to look at last year's storm season, and the fact that we haven't had any storms this year. But the dive shops are doing extremely well, and those people are staying somewhere."

Dive shops in the Upper Keys also have reported increases since the Vandenberg sank.

Capt. Spencer Slate, owner of Atlantis Dive Center, reported that many people have come into his shop to dive the Upper Keys wrecks before heading south to the Vandenberg, or vice versa.

"The Keys now have seven nice, intact wrecks, and the Vandenberg has completed the puzzle," he said. "My business has dramatically increased."

Other attractions, such as the Conch Tour Train and local museums, have reported a successful summer season, but officials from the companies hesitate to attribute it to the Vandenberg, saying their customers are not necessarily the same ones who would be diving the new wreck.

Further promotion of the wreck will take place next month at the Dive Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) conference in Orlando. Scientists from the Stevens Institute in New Jersey will sink a scale model of the Vandenberg in a pool twice during the convention.

"We're going to blow it up and sink it again," Weatherby said. "DEMA will be another good shot in the arm for Key West next month.

"The boats are there, the people are there and the buzz is all over the Internet," he said. "The interest level is like nothing I've ever seen."

mbolen@keysnews.com