Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:

These divers are visiting the most complex artificial reef Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. has ever created. In just 1 year, thousands of fish have made this their new home.
The "Texas Clipper" has become an ocean oasis.

"Okay, guys, today's dive as you know is to the "Texas Clipper". There are 3 must-see parts of this dive. The first . . ."

Tim O'Leary owns and operates the American Diving Center on south Padre Island. He takes sport divers out to explore the "Texas Clipper" which now teems with marine life.

Texas Parks & Wildlife has taken a section of the Gulf of Mexico that was once a barren desert and created an enormous ecosystem of some 180,000 sq. feet of substrate to bring new life for both the fishermen and the divers.
I never thought it would happen. I am ecstatic. And for me this is like an unbelievable dream
come true for south Texas and I'm just shocked it's in my own backyard.

Over the past 60 years the "Texas Clipper" has had 3 very different lives. She transported troops during WWII, carried the well-to-do across the Atlantic for leisure during the '50s and then taught maritime cadets how to command a ship. Now she will spend her 4th and final life as an artificial reef attracting marine life, scuba divers and anglers.

This is a world class wreck. I want Texans and Texas to get excited.

When Texas Parks and Wildlife acquired the clipper, they spent a year cleaning it of all hazardous materials and creating openings for water flow and wildlife. She was then towed to the location of her final home 17 miles from south Padre Island.

When the ship started to sink, not everything happened according to plan.

We spent 10 years planning this and everything rides on the sinking. And we're going to do controlled flooding to eliminate the use of explosives to protect marine life. But, by using controlled flooding, at any point in time something could go wrong and the ship can roll over on its side or roll upside-down which would be the last thing that we want to happen.

The ship started to take on water on its port side, the left side, and we assumed that the water would go across the ship to the other side, the starboard side, and equalize itself out.
That wasn't the case. It should be in an upright position, it should be going down evenly.

This was not what we had bargained for, this is not what we had planned for 10 years.
As soon as the ship went down, it was obvious that it was laying on its port side.

If sinking on its side wasn't enough, just 10 months later hurricane Ike flanked the "Texas Clipper."
It's believed that the very strong currents created by the hurricane caused a crack in the stern, creating a 15-ft. wide opening in the ship.

From the perspective of being an artificial reef or marine habitat the ship is functioning.
It would be much better if it was in an upright position where most of the marine life could be up in the higher water column where there's more light. We're in early discussions on a method to upright the ship and to discuss whether this is even feasible.



I've been told through consultants and other contractors yes it can be done. It's not a cheap thing to do, it's a little bit difficult but it certainly can be done. It's really important to have the ship in an upright position because it was strictly designed to be a dive attraction and keep most of the diving 80 feet and shallower. That's also important for the marine life because the majority of the marine life is going to be in the higher light zone that's up around 50, 60, 70 feet or so.

South Padre Island ...now added to all the things you can do here are diving and fishing the "Texas Clipper"

It's a blast, I mean to see all the different type of fish life and the various marine life because you never know. Each dive is different. We saw a manta last time we were out here.
So there's no 2 dives that are exactly alike no matter how many times you do it. It's different every single time.

There will be a huge economic impact for both, the town of South Padre Island and the dive shops throughout Texas as well as the restaurants, the bars, the campgrounds, the gasoline station. Impact of the tourist dollar increase in this area will be enormous.

Here at South Padre Beach Resort we definitely have seen a positive impact ever since the Clipper has been sunk.

The Clipper's been a great benefit to us you know, it's bringing in divers in November and December when we've never seen them before.
Come here, fishy... and the fishing at the clipper...

It couldn't be better, the fish come in and they come in and they just keep coming in and keep coming in and they breed there. This Clipper's going to be fantastic for this area. It really is.

Artificial reefs are real, real good huh? See this fish? Yeah, they're great.
Wooo! Fishing Texas, baby!

свернуть