Video: USS Vandenberg is sunk off Key West as artificial reef
May 27, 2009 at 12:53 pm by Wayne Garcia
Having just spent some time in the Florida Keys snorkeling a few reefs I have to say this is good news: a huge, decommissioned U.S. Navy vessel, the Hoyt S. Vandenberg, was sunk seven miles off the Key West shore to provide a new artificial reef.
KeysNet reports:
After a decade of planning, it took less than two minutes Wednesday for the 522-foot USS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg to sink as the Keys’ newest artificial reef. It was under water by 10:23 a.m. — held up 23 minutes by a sea turtle that needed time to swim out of the way.
The ship now rests in 140 of feet of water at 24.27 north latitude, 81.44 west longitude.
The former U.S. Navy and Air Force vessel, which sat in the government’s mothball fleet in Virginia from 1983 until she was moved to Key West in April, was towed to the scuttling site from her berth at the East Quay Wall just before 7 a.m. Tuesday.
View a Google Map of the ship’s location
Video of the sinking after the jump:
