New wrecks

[Safetyman]

Before you hastily read through this to find out the co-ordinates of some long forgotten wrecks, this is not about old wrecks it is about new ones. No I haven’t got a crystal ball and I am not wishing tens of sailors a watery grave but I would like to ask your opinion on the creation of new wrecks/reefs. This may have been discussed before so if it has please point me in the right direction.

The wrecks that we have off the north east coast are many and vary in their condition from still intact to just a pile of rusting plates on the sea bed. In time more and more of them will fall into the latter category and we will have fewer and fewer good wrecks for summer cod and ling fishing. Hopefully all of the modern navigation aids will have made shipwrecks a thing of the past and the number of natural wrecks will decrease.

So how about creating either artificial reefs like those made of concrete and put in place off the coast of Gibraltar (don’t tell the Spanish!!) or sinking redundant ships once all hazardous materials have been removed from them. Sinking the ships would be a good exercise for the Royal Navy using their explosives experts to fit explosives on the bottom plates once the ship has been towed into position.

I realise that by placing wrecks/reefs on the sea bed we have not got to create a hazard for shipping but if the potential sites are evaluated beforehand then the risk to shipping will be eliminated.

That’s the easy bit now how could we convince those in authority to listen? Lobby MPs, petition parliament, any ideas? Anyone got any old oil tankers they don’t want?

[northeast1]

No chance of it happening.

1/ Price of scrap metal is very high now and money can be made, days of running ships on the ebach in india are now gone by the UK

2/ The enviroment agency took a fit when plans for the MOD to sink old tanks off the south coast a year back, all questions raised about leaking oil and such stopped it in its tracks even thou it had been done in the past and photos taken showing how the sea life had taken them over.

I agree, more and more wrecks rust away to flat lumps, one of my fav wrecks that used to have a nice lump on the NE side of the drift now does not have it, now a flatter large lump on the bottom.

[Kartonkel]

Has been done in Cape Town.

Diving The Wrecks Of Smitswinkel Bay: South Africa's Amazing Artificial Reef | Scuba Divers Travel Network (SDTN)

Only problem...they declared deservedly a marine conservation zone

Means NO FISHING

[The Plum]

there was talk years back of fastening all the old tyres together and dropping them down to make reefs but they never,cant understand why? it would be good for getting rid of them theyd last years and years loads together would weightons so wouldnt move away and fish would love the holes ect for protection,bit snaggy for fishing but great for the fish,id wish they done it atb plum

[mark]

never gonna happen. a list of long as your arm of 'agencies' that would throw spanners in the works left right and centre, MCGA, DEFRA, MCS, Port of Tyne to name a few.

I made enquiries a few years ago about an old wooden hulk, that has nothing on it at all that could be deemed hazardous, towing it out and scuttling it. Assess this assess that, do a site survey, do envirnomental impact asessments, risk assessments, Health and safety, hazardous material inspections, planning applications, and on and on and on

and then when you have sunk it do allt he same again

To 'pay' every one with a vested interest to 'consult' and sign it off, would have been a 6 figure sum, to sink a 65 foot wooden trawler out of the way of anyone

crackers

[canman]

You could always buy an old boat, go out for a fishing trip in it, with a mate in another boat, and possibly hit a big lump of driftwood, which would probably hole it.........and down she goes while you helplessly watch from the deck of your mates boat.........

[Skingz]

I was recently out on a trip fro North Shields, we drifted over a wreck close by was a large concrete structure is fishing not allowed around this object ? Not sure what it was not a wind farm prop. Any ideas what it is was north of the Tyne

[northeast1]

I was recently out on a trip fro North Shields, we drifted over a wreck close by was a large concrete structure is fishing not allowed around this object ? Not sure what it was not a wind farm prop. Any ideas what it is was north of the Tyne

Stadium of light i think it was, it sank in 2013


Nar no idea, alsorts of junk out at sea if keep your eye on the fish finder when moving.

[codcatcher3000]

Malaysia has had massive artificial reef projects ranging from concrete structures to strings of tyres and it has produced some good results some , they reckon its produced some 2 million metric tonnes of fish over the years. . they also working with fish agregating devices too mainly for pelagic fish .

[on the mark]

Malaysia has had massive artificial reef projects ranging from concrete structures to strings of tyres and it has produced some good results some , they reckon its produced some 2 million metric tonnes of fish over the years. . they also working with fish agregating devices too mainly for pelagic fish .

think it's allready been done in the uk in a couple of places not by sinking ships though.

[oldessox]

I watched them sink an aircraft carrier or something as big on tv to create a an artificial reef, somewhere off the coast of America, where it happens regularly I think. The yanks are light years ahead of us when it comes to being sensible though

[Safetyman]

It is interesting to read the views of others on this topic but I don’t think it is very helpful to say it won’t happen. If our grandfather had said that we would still be working for mine owners in terrible conditions and not living very long.

We can change things we have the biggest participant sport in the UK and therefore the largest lobby providing we want to change things. What is the alternative? Let all our wrecks disintegrate until we have none? Or try and put things in place for our kids and their kids so that wreck fishing has a future off our coast.

Perhaps the sinking of ships is not a very good idea although I still think it is feasible even if the ship owners were compensated for the loss of steel and all hazardous materials removed.

Concrete reefs are something else and as a few have commented on these reefs having been put in place elsewhere. The tyres is another good idea and perhaps a combination of these and concrete.

Marine conservation areas are not all bad providing we are allowed some new areas to fish; it has to be a trade-off. These conservation areas will increase fish stocks, which are needed so badly, and could be the carrot to get conservation groups interested as well.

So there are benefits to be had for us and benefits for the local marine environment

There is no doubt that it won’t be easy, nothing worthwhile ever was, but get the right groups interested, lobby the government through local MPs and get the right funding and I think this is feasible. Providing people want it.

[mark]

Sink a ship and you'd never get to fish it anyway. it would either be designated some sort of marine reserver or be constantly full of divers

[BestNest]

Sure in New York the out of service Subway Carts get stripped and sunk a few mile off. Should get on the phone to nexus, see if they've got any spare, See if you can leave the bag heads etc in as they sink!