The Miami Herald

June 6, 2001

Section: Keys Edition: Keys Page: 1B

PLANS UNDER SAIL FOR SHIP TO BECOME ARTIFICIAL REEF

LISA FUSS, lfuss@herald.com

After seven years and numerous bureaucratic obstacles, the decommissioned 510-foot warship Spiegel Grove is now just months away from an ocean burial off Key Largo, where it will become the largest vessel ever scuttled to serve as an artificial reef. Government officials have approved a transfer of title, passing ownership of the former landing-craft carrier from the federal Maritime Administration to the state of Florida. Plans call for the Spiegel Grove to be towed next week from Fort Eustis, Va., where the vessel has been docked for more than a decade alongside dozens of other decommissioned ships, to a nearby cleaning shipyard. Workers will spend the next three months removing toxins, including paint and asbestos, from the vessel's 11 stately decks before towing the ship to a sand-bottom ocean site 51/2 miles off Key Largo, near Dixie Shoals. Once there, a U.S. Navy Seals explosives team will send the Spiegel Grove to its watery grave 124 feet below the surface in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Although the hull of the ship will settle too deep for snorkelers and novice scuba divers, the Spiegel Grove's uppermost structure will reach 85 feet high, making it accessible to all. ``We've had to get through a lot of bureaucratic red tape, and we've had some surprises along the way, but they've finally given us the ship. The war is over,'' said Spencer Slate, a Key Largo dive operator who is spearheading the $400,000 project funded by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, private donations and fundraisers. ``People are going to come from around the world to dive this ship once it goes down.'' Slate, who received a copy of the vessel's title change Tuesday, recalled numerous setbacks over the years in his quest to transform the ship into an artificial reef. The Environmental Protection Agency first refused to permit the Maritime Administration to move the vessel from its dock on Virginia's James River to a Baltimore facility to be cleaned. The Baltimore shipyard had been cited for environmental problems. Because the vessel is to be sunk in a protected marine sanctuary, the Spiegel Grove also has been subject to stringent inspections by the state of Florida, the EPA, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only two ships have been intentionally sunk in the sanctuary, the Ocean Freeze near Biscayne National Park and the Adolphus Busch off Summerland Key. A third, the warship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, is scheduled to be sunk off Key West next year. Because marine officials aren't sure what, if any, effects artificial reefs have on sea life, a sanctuary moratorium has been put in place, preventing the sinking of additional structures beyond those now scheduled until scientific studies reveal their impact. ``Although we instinctively feel artificial reefs are good alternative dive sites and make additional homes for marine life, we can't base decisions on `we think.' We have to base them on hard data,'' said sanctuary spokeswoman Cheva Heck, who has noticed increased fish populations at other artificial reefs in the Keys. ``I'm sure [the Spiegel Grove] is going to be a big attraction once it's on the bottom. Divers love wrecks,'' she said. ``I'm guilty.'' Illustration:color photo: The ship Spiegel Grove (a) ANDY NEWMAN/FLORIDA KEYS TDC HEADED FOR THE KEYS: The Spiegel Grove sits among other vessels in Fort Eustis, Va. Plans call for crews to begin cleaning the 510-foot decommissioned warship next week before it is sunk in the Florida Keys. Copyright (c) 2001 The Miami Herald