Four vessels are being meticulously cleaned for sinking on New Jersey's Reef
Network. The vessels include a 77-foot trawler, two 100-foot deck barges, and a
100-foot surf clam vessel.

Once the vessels are sunk they will soon become homes for 150 species of fish
and marine life, fishing grounds for anglers and an underwater attractions for
scuba divers. The vessels will continue to provide habitat for marine life and
be productive fishing grounds for at least another 50 years. The target dates
for the deployments are:

August 3rd - 77-foot trawler at Townsends Inlet Reef
August 9th - 200-foot deck barge at Axel Carlson Reef
August 16th - 200-foot deck barge at Cape May Reef
August 28th - 100-foot surf clam dredge at Cape May Reef

All reef deployments are subject to weather and sea conditions. For further
information regarding these deployments contact Hugh Carberry at 609-748-2022.
For information on past deployments please visit NJfishandwildlife.com.

It would be really cool to watch one of these go down and get some pics.

Any idea where they are putting these "reefs"?

They will usually put out the exact lat and lon once the vessels are on bottom.

Chad I actually was wondering if it would be a new reef or added? I have pretty much 0 knowledge of the Ocean besides surf,

They add the vessels to existing reef sites. I might be able to get out for the Axel Carlson one. Have to check with the boss and see if I can get that day off.

Oh, OK, was just a ponder in my brain, Thanx JJ

There is a reef forum with numbers for most of the wrecks within each of the 15 reef sites.

Chad you can see pics of some of them online. I found a really cool site one day don't remember how I found it snd can't find it now.
But here is a link to some pictures.
The other site had alot more and better photos

http://njscuba.net/reefs/misc_materials.html#ships

Yeah, Ive seen them online too. Can' remember where I saw them either. I'd like to get out and actually see and photograph for myself. I watched a documentary on tv(discovery I think) when they sunk an aircraft carrier for a reef and it looked awesome.

Chad,

That was Discovery and camera's were placed inside different locations in the ship. They had actual footage of the sinking from the inside. That was something to see.. If you recall their fear was the ship wouldn't sit upright on the bottom. They were afraid it was going to fall over onto her side. "She didn't". When all was said and done she was sitting on the bottom as she floated on the water. The carrier was set up inside for divers to explore safely as well as a reef.

Jersey Joe, those dates are only guestimates and not written in stone. Like the one schueled for today got pushed back til sometime next week, hopefully tues/weds.

I watched them push some tanks off of a barge on the Barnegat Light Artificial Reef a few years ago, never thought about taking pictures. Not like a ship sinking, but it was pretty cool.

Barnegat Fishin' Hole has funded 6 tanks on Barnegat Light Reef.
There are 2 clusters of 3 tanks each.
The approx Lat/Long are:
39 45.0/074 01.7
39 44.7/074 01.7

When the 3rd edition of the reef book comes out they will be listed with their exact locations.

Larry when you say TANKS, mean like Army Tanks or Holding Tanks?

Like Army tanks, although I think traditionally they are armored personnel carriers.

Thats why I was confused, we need clearity here! lmao

Military track vehicles!!
In the reef book they describe them as Obsolete army vehicles include M-60 and M-551(I think this is a mis-print, should be M-155) tanks. M-113 Armored Personnel carriers and M-578 Crane vehicles.

Now thats CLEAR! thanx not that it makes that much differance either way I was just wondering.

Most are personnel carriers that IMHO are better. They take off the entry door, which leaves a nice cavern for fish. Tanks tend to sink in the sand, with less hiding spaces.Both will last a loooog time...