Now limited to the area off Cape Hatteras where the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor sank in 1862, the proposal is to extend NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary to include ships sunk in what is known as “Torpedo Alley.” About 1,200 U.S. servicemen lost their lives in shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast – about half the total who died at Pearl Harbor.
In my article Open Season on US Coastal Sharks, I asked readers to write to each and every member of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation (FWC) Commission.
SS Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot (85 m) sidewheel steamer which sank in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas in September 1857, along with more than 420 passengers and crew and 14 tonnes of gold with an estimated value of $300 million on today's market.
With so much money on the line, ownership of the loot has been entrenched in legal battles ever since its discovery by Columbus-America Discovery Group in 1989.
This Community Education program is for both the Medical Community and the Diving Community. Bringing together nationally and internationally known speakers on topics of dive safety, medicine and training.
Miles of white sandy beaches, family vacation destinations, infamous spring break festivities and outstanding state parks attract millions of visitors to Florida annually from around the world. But there is so much more to see—especially for those who like to take their sightseeing down below the ocean and gulf waters—like the beauty and magic of thousands of artificial reefs that lie beneath the surface along Florida’s coastlines.
For best viewing of the massive numbers, head to Jupiter on the eastern coast of Florida. Groupers travel from as far away as Fort Myers and northeast Florida for the spawning events on wrecks and reefs. The window of opportunity to dive with these large fish in these high numbers is quite small. Most of the fish are gone by mid-October, but some remain year round. Goliath groupers can reach up to 800 pounds and were nearly fished out in the 1970s and 80’s, but have made a strong comeback under a protection ban that was established in 1990.
The survey revealed coral “hotspots,” and found that a new coral habitat suitability model could help predict where corals are likely to occur.
The exploration, the first to look for corals and sponges in the area in decades, is helping researchers develop a computer model to determine where other coral hotspots might be found.
More than 70 deepwater canyons, ranging from 330 to 11,500 feet (100 to 3,500 m) deep, exist along the Northeast's continental shelf and slope. Few are well-studied, and many are likely home to as-yet-undiscovered life forms.
The deep-sea coral and sponge habitats observed in the canyons are not like those found in shallow-water tropical reefs or deep-sea coral habitats in other regions
Sea Hunters, L.P., a division of the Portland Maine based shipwreck research and recovery company Sub Sea Research, embark to recover of one of the world's wealthiest wrecks.
It was reported that the wreck of the Port Nicholson was discovered in 2008 by Greg Brooks, of the American company Sub Sea Research, but the discovery was kept secret until February 2012.
Brooks initially claimed to be investigating an unidentified vessel, codenamed Blue Baron, that lay off the coast of Guyana in South America.
