Warship sunk off Key West expected to attract divers

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The decommissioned US Navy warship General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was sunk off Key West, Florida on Wednesday, to become the second-largest artificial coral reef in the world.

Around 10:30am, local time, the retired ship was sunk in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It took less than two minutes for the 17,250-ton ship to settle 140 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico waters.

According to Andy Newman, a spokesman for the Florida Keys Tourism Council, much of the ship’s bulk is only 40-70 feet below the water’s surface. “It went down like a rock,” he said to CNN, adding: “Everything looked very, very smooth.”

Around 300 boats were nearby for the sinking of the warship, and cheers could be heard when it slipped beneath the surface of the water, at a location seven miles to the south of Key West, according to observers at the scene.

Divers were being sent to assess the ship’s position later in the day. Authorities said that diving enthusiasts would be able to explore the ship once final assessments had been made.

The goal of the project, which cost $8.6 million, is to divert divers and fishermen away from natural reefs, according to Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Thanks to edition.cnn.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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