Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.

Activity Report for the Period

May 11 thru June 8, 2017

Activity Summary

During this period there was 1 dive trip and 1 reef construction trip. On May 27 a dive trip was made to deploy the FH-7 recorder but was diverted as a monitoring dive on culverts 110318a 542F2 & 150713a due to sea conditions. On June 1, a barge load of culverts was deployed on FH-2 creating 2 new state water reefs. A dive was also conducted on the Corps Barge in FH-2 during the deployment trip.

Culvert Details

On May 27, a trip was planned to deploy the FH-7 water quality recorder which measures dissolved oxygen, temperature, and salinity every 15 minutes. On board were DeepWater Mafia members Bob Brown and Brad Jay. Sea conditions were brutal as we headed out and we could only make about 14 knots so we decided to hold up in FH-2 and checkout the conditions there first. State Red Snapper season just opened the day before so we tried our luck on them. The winds finally started to subside as expected, but by then we had some red snapper on the vessel so we decided not to chance running out into federal waters and being cited for possession. We then made a couple dives on 2 different culvert piles, 110318A 542F2 Kev Culverts at 30°04.979'N / 88°33.751'W and 150713a 553F2 Culverts at 30°04.891'N/88°34.541'W. Poor Visibility hampered observations but there was apparent heavy populations of red snapper and a few Triggerfish. Soft corals were abundantly attached to the culverts and more pronounced on the older 110318a pile.

170601a Culverts 580F2 30°05.110'N 88°34.712'W 56' Depth

170601b Culverts 581F2 30°04.974'N 88°34.153'W 57' Depth

Onboard was DeepWater Mafia member Dyllan Camplejohn. Matthews Marine was the contractor and arrived with the Tug Boats Anthony Taylor and Matthew Nicole at around 2:30pm, delayed by some thunderstorms. A dive was made on the Corps Barge while waiting for their arrival. The DMR selected and marked the locations for the contractor. The first load is a little more scattered due to the marker buoy dragging and not being detected immediately. The drift was in a west-northwest direction from 30°05.093 / 88°34.671 to 30°05.128'N / 88°34.732'W. The second deployment is more concentrated at the given coordinates. Deployment time was between 2:30pm and 5pm with a tide level of 1.2' mlw. Hi Tide occurred around 3:18pm. See the Full Gallery at mgfb.org.

http://mgfb.org/                                                          Email Author: MarkPrimo@primofish.com