Scuba Diving Illegal Smuggling Ship Fang Ming In The Sea Of Cortez

April of 1995, a Chinese fishing vessel, later converted into a cargo ship, traveled from China across the Pacific Ocean down towards Mexico, the Baja California Sur area, but before they could make their destination, they were intercepted by the Mexican Navy. I'm going to tell you what happened to that ship, where she sits in the bottom of an ocean, and how you can go there and check it out for yourself. La Paz, Mexico, Sea of Cortez. It is the home to many wonderful sea creatures living in the ocean. Whale sharks, sea lions, green moray eels, sea turtles, king angelfish, and large seahorses. Jacques Cousteau called the waters surrounding La Paz, the world's aquarium, a most fitting description of the area's rich and diverse ecosystems, found in bay after aqua blue bay, with white sandy beaches protected by dramatic rock formations sprinkled with cactus. But there's something else that has taken up residence in La Paz, Mexico, and not by their choice. That would be the Chinese smuggling ship, Fang Ming. While the Chinese smuggling ship, Fang Ming, was nearing Puerto San Carlos in Baja California Sur, it was intercepted by the Mexican Navy. She had been found illegally transporting human cargo. They found 88 male Chinese immigrant workers, along with seven female Chinese immigrant workers in confined, unsanitary, and disgusting conditions. The Fang Ming's mission was to smuggle the immigrant Chinese workers into the U.S. through our Mexican border, perhaps so even they can pursue the American dream. All of the immigrants found on the Fang Ming were deported back to China. After the Fang Ming was intercepted, the Mexican Navy confiscated the ship and all the immigrant workers were deported back to their mainland. But what to do with the Fang Ming? A few visionaries and farsighted Sea-Watch members thought of an amazing idea to turn the Fang Ming into an artificial reef, a great habitat for marine life and scuba divers to enjoy, making it a bigger tourist attraction. While the ship was being cleaned and prepared as a dive site, with the openings being widening for ship penetration by divers, the ship was getting prepped to be sunk out in the Sea of Cortez, just north of La Paz, Mexico. On November 1999, the Fang Ming was deliberately sunk to the bottom of the ocean. She rests at about 72 feet deep. She was the first vessel ever to be intentionally become a shipwreck in Latin America, sunk as an artificial reef in the Sea of Cortez. And today, she is one of the greatest dive attractions in the Espiritu Santo National Park. Fang Ming is sitting in about 72 feet of water. The top of the ship is about 48 feet deep. The dive site is full of life and exciting. Thanks to the Sea-Watch's forward thinking of the reclamation process, it has been in the water for over 20 years and very well preserved and intact. This is a great dive site for beginners as well as advanced divers. The shipwreck is about 180 feet long. Some of the marine life you can encounter on this wreck are green turtles, angelfish, parrotfish, groupers, snappers, and many, many more different types of fish species. Ironically, a fishing vessel which had taken fish out of the waters to feed people, then turned to legal smuggling, was repurposed and placed back into our waters to provide an artificial reef which is now a home to marine life and a great attraction for divers to observe and penetrate and experience while here in La Paz, Mexico in the Sea of Cortez. I also want to take the time to thank Hotel La Concha and the dive shop that is connected to the Hotel La Concha, the Cortez Club. Great crew, great staffing, a very comfortable place to stay. It was right on the beach. The dive shop has got their own boats, their own gear. They'll take you right to the dive sites by boats. It's pretty much all boat diving up north from La Paz. I recommend checking it out, going there so you can have a great stay and dive some of these dive sites here in La Paz, Mexico in the Sea of Cortez. The Fang Ming Shipwreck was just an amazing wreck to come out and dive. It's got all these passageways that you can penetrate the wreck and go in and out of, get all your shots, all of the marine life, the sea turtles, the fish. It's absolutely amazing. The clarity out here was amazing. Definitely get out to La Paz, link up with the Cortez Club dive shop, stay at Hotel La Concha, get some dives in down here, support these guys. This was amazing diving down here in the Sea of Cortez. Now I'm going to shut up and let the rest of the clips roll with some music. So as we're checking out the sea turtle taking a nap on the back of the Fang Ming, I'm going to take the time to thank you all for tuning in and watching. Please make sure you are subscribed to the channel with the bell hit so you can stay up to date on all our videos. Feel free to post a comment. Don't forget to like the video. I would be absolutely grateful if you shared the video. Check in the description below. You'll see the links for the dive shop, the resort we stayed at, the merchandise that we're selling to help build the channel, and I'll see you guys on the next episode. Take care. Be safe. Thank you.