The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR), in partnership with Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks (MGFB), has deployed the state's latest artificial reef, the Great Wicomico, a 176-foot retired fishing vessel donated by Omega Protein Inc.
About 90 percent of Mississippi's artificial reefs were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and to date, some 60 percent of those reefs have been rebuilt.
The new reef has been placed in Fish Haven 13, about 13 miles south of Horn Island in Mississippi waters. Lat/longs for the site are not available from the DMR: the agency does not publish the GPS numbers of artificial reefs until they have been submerged for one year, in order to give the reef commmunities a chance to establish themselves.
In reality, private boats on hand to witness the deployment of new reefs are able to mark the locations, a lot of anglers happen on the reefs in the course of their fishing. The locations are not a secret, per se, they just are not advertised by the DMR until the requisite year has passed.
The Great Wicomico represents a substantial addition to the Mississippi reef program. "This is the second largest vessel we've sunk so far," said DMR Artificial Reef Bureau Director Kerwin Cuevas. "This is a great addition to Mississippi's artificial reefs and we'd like to thank Omega Protein and Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks for working in partnership to increase our reef fish habitat off the state of Mississippi."
Omega Protein donated the vessel and shared the cost of cleaning and sinking the vessel with MGFB utilizing NOAA Emergency Disaster Relief Program funds.
