For the Navy Times

Destroyer Radford to become reef off Md. coast

By Scott Muska - The Salisbury (Md.) Daily Times
Posted : Monday Apr 18, 2011 20:29:03 EDT

OCEAN CITY, Md. — A former Navy destroyer will soon be sunk off the Maryland coast to serve as a fish-attracting artificial reef.

The Arthur W. Radford, a 563-foot vessel, will be sunk in about 130 feet of water in an area about 28 miles northeast of the Ocean City Inlet. The ship will serve as the largest artificial reef to be planted on the East Coast to date, according to Monty Hawkins, chairman of the Maryland Artificial Reef Committee.

“It’s just a very big, bodacious project, and I have every expectation it will be a fantastic reef,” said Hawkins, who is also an Ocean City Reef Foundation board member.

The boat’s sinking location has been mapped to be roughly equidistant between Indian River Inlet,
 Cape May and Ocean City. Environmental entities from the three states are collaborating on the effort, with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control leading the project.

The vessel will be sunk in the Del-Jersey-Land artificial reef, where numerous other objects and vessels — including wooden dry docks and two World War II-era U-boats — have been sunk previously, Hawkins said.

The new reef site should eventually be a big economic boost and an attraction for fishing and scuba diving, said Erik Zlokovitz, artificial reef coordinator for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

“It’s going to be a great fishing habitat and an impressive site for scuba divers,” Zlokovitz said. “I think it’ll be an economic boost, and fishing and diving boats from all three states are going to benefit.”

A firm date for the sinking is not yet set, but officials are hoping for a time in late May or June, pending final federal approval for the project and weather cooperation.

The reefs are not only good for fishing restoration in the area but also for building stocks of fish beyond historical value, Hawkins said.

Monitoring studies have shown that placement of durable, stable reef materials can result in as much as a 400-fold increase in the amount of small sea life and fish inhabiting an area, according to the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife’s website.

“We can make fishing better than it has ever been,” Hawkins said.

Radford was commissioned in 1977 and decommissioned eight years ago. It has remained at the Philadelphia Navy Yard since June 2010, Zlokovitz said. While there, it has been stripped of its superstructure and other portions that have been salvaged. It has also had numerous holes cut in its hull to make it a better reef, Hawkins said.