CCA Florida's efforts on SS United States

As we anticipated, it took some time, but a piece of American history officially has a new home at the bottom of the ocean. This was a look at the ship's final sunset before you watched her. Slowly go into the ocean. It was once the fastest passenger ocean liner in the world. It was intentionally sunk to become one of the largest artificial reefs in the world. And the goal overall here is to give marine life a new place to call home while creating an exciting new destination for divers and anglers. Myself and Mark Wilson, two avid scuba divers. We need to check this out. And the Coastal Conservation Association played a major role. In making this project a reality. So I want to waste no time bringing in two important people involved in that process. Joining us right now, CCA Director of Habitat and Environmental Restoration, Frank Gaitis, and Executive Director, Brian Gorski. Gentlemen, how we doing? How's it going? Good afternoon. How are you doing? Great. So good. Yesterday was quite a sight. So before we get into all the background information here, I have to know, where were you, gentlemen, yesterday? Were you on one of the boats surrounding the vessel? We were actually. We got to the deployment site right about 11.30 local time, and we were on one of the vessels right there next to the SS United States. So it was very neat to see up close and personal as a contributor to this very historic event. We did have our banner on the side of it that you can see, and it was a very special day for us and for the state of Florida and Okaloosa I can imagine. Now, first, take us back to the beginning a little bit. How did CCA become involved in this project? And what made you want to be a part of turning this historic ship into an artificial reef? I know it was kind of collecting rust in Philadelphia for ages. It was for nearly 30 years up in Philadelphia. So Okaloosa County, who we've been working with and been partners with for six years now, and in partnership with Okaloosa County, we've deployed five vessels with them to date, and we'll have another one deployed with them later this year. We've also worked with them on restocking efforts of redfish, juvenile redfish. And we've released 65,000 redfish in the waters of Okaloosa County. But Alex Fogg reached out to us when this came up. And it was 2025, February of 2025, Alex called Frank and myself. And he's like. What do you think about this? And we're like, wow, that is a major project, and we would absolutely love to be involved in it because we know Okaloosa County and their artificial reef program is top-notch, and they do everything correct. And really, Okaloosa County and Alex, if we had a reefing project like that, a reefing division in all of the counties across the state, it would be a really positive thing for the state and our fisheries. Yeah, I have to admit, I am a big scuba diver, so I'm going to have to get out there myself relatively soon. And I want to talk in just a minute about what this is going to do for tourism in and around Okaloosa County. But I want to ask you really quickly, because my co-anchor and I yesterday were chatting about he had spoken to some families that had ties to the history of the ship. They had a family coming from Germany on the ship. I know there was talks of possibly Possibly making this. A museum, but that just that didn't work out. Are you able to explain that and why it ended up turning into this kind of marine effort? It was basically a funding issue, you know, it sat in Philadelphia for 30 years. It was owned by a non-profit and unfortunately, from a financial standpoint, it was just, it wasn't feasible and the dockage fees kept adding up and we, or Okaloosa County came in and bid on the ship, purchased the ship, and then they towed it all the way down the coast of Florida and around the Keys and back up into Mobile because Mobile had the The only port large enough to house the vessel while they cleaned it and got all the contaminants off of it to make sure that it was safe to sink. Okay. All right. That's fair. Now, I know that the CCA committed $500,000 to this project. That's the largest individual contribution in the organization's history. So how important was that investment in helping make this happen? You know, like you said, it was our largest contribution, but again, the magnitude of this project and the historical value to not only CCA, but... The state of Florida, we knew that we had to be involved in this, and we're lucky, thanks to our sponsors, all of our members and our leadership, we did have the ability, and over the years, with positive fundraising, we were able to make this large contribution. And with our partners across the state, and actually across the country, CCA Florida has been able to contribute over $26 million to date to Florida's estuaries and fisheries. Now, maybe this question is more for Frank. From an environmental standpoint, what happens now that the ship is on the ocean floor? How quickly will marine life begin to move in, so to speak? Yeah, I know. That's a great question. So honestly, we've done several of these. And when the divers have gone down right after the vessel has been deployed, they would already see fish on it. And I expect no different from this. But it's going to take time, you know, over the course of a year. Maybe after a year, you're really going to start to see some marine growth on the vessel itself and a lot of, you know, various fish and bait species showing up. But after, I would say, two or three years, you're really going to This, you know, living, thriving ecosystem down there with all types of, you know, reef fish, pelagics, all kinds of marine life, encrustables on the ship. It's going to be it's going to be fantastic. Yeah. And I mean, this isn't just an environmental project. It's also expected to become a major destination for divers, anglers. So how soon do you think we could see these opportunities open up and what do you think that is going to look like? It's immediate. I mean, they'll be, come and dive it right now. It's, you know, it's there. What's, I think, incredible about this is this is the largest artificial reef in the world, and you'll have divers coming from all over. The world to come dive this and, you know, as a result, they're going to be, you know, spending money locally at, you know, getting tanks filled, charters, hotels, gas, restaurants, you name it. So the local economic impact is going to be unbelievable. And we're talking about, you know, for decades and decades, you know, for Okaloosa County and Escambia County. Do you feel that this project could serve as a blueprint for other artificial reef projects that exist or could exist? I mean, I think, you know, that Okaloosa County has already established the blueprint for deploying artificial reefs. They are one of the best, if not the best, in the state of Florida and maybe in the country. It is to the level of detail and knowledge that they put into preparing and cleaning these vessels and deploying them. And each one's the same from a smaller one, you know, 75-foot ship all the way up to the SS United States. They go through the same protocol. And so, yeah, definitely, this could serve as a blueprint for anybody. I think it could stand for a blueprint for a challenge to beat it. I mean, you've got a 990-foot vessel now on the bottom of the Gulf, and there's already been talk about how that record could be broken. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, well, you have to think about it. I mean, if it's sitting there anyway, might as well turn it into a new home for our fishies and a new dive spot for recreational divers. That's for sure. And I know that CCA isn't only known for sinking ships. I know conservation is in your name. So what other projects are you guys currently working towards? Are you able to share that a little bit? Absolutely. We, you know, we've been around for 40 years. We started off as a fisheries management organization, but over the past 15 years, we've established and kind of shifted our focus. And on to habitat restoration, so everything from artificial reefs, whether it be sinking ships or using concrete rubble or limestone boulders, as well as recycling oyster shell and restoring oyster reefs to planting mangroves that we grow at the CCA Florida Duke Energy Mariculture Center. We also restock redfish and spotted sea trout across the state. And Frank, please chime in. The habitat restoration piece of CCA is one of the biggest things that we do right now. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so we've been involved in 52 artificial reefs in the last 15 years, and we've been involved in over 280 habitat restoration projects, and these are coastal restoration. And like Brian said, it can involve anything from a small living shoreline to one of our largest projects with some of our other partners Billion Clam Project. And we just recently passed 100 million clams restored back in the Indian River Lagoon. So we have projects like this going on all over the state. And correct me if I'm wrong, can volunteers get involved in some of these projects? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the best way to do that is we send out a weekly email to our members on Tuesdays that have all of our upcoming volunteer opportunities. And that also gives a review of the projects we've completed that past week and upcoming banquets and things like that. So we encourage people to become a CCA member. Oh, awesome. How can people find out more about you guys? Tell me everything. You can go to ccaflorida.org. You can find out about all of our membership information there. Our annual membership is only $40 a year. And as Frank mentioned, every Tuesday we send out an email to all of our membership highlighting. Upcoming events, upcoming habitat restoration projects, upcoming restocking efforts, and then also fisheries issues and so forth. But you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram and get your daily updates there. Awesome. Awesome. Before I let you guys go, I have to ask, I know you mentioned in the beginning that you guys were out there. Were you there in the dark when it actually started descending into the ocean? We were. We did have a little bit of an issue with the vessel that we took out there, and we had an incoming storm with this cold front that you mentioned prior to us coming live, and so we were concerned about safety. Safety is always a concern, and that was a little bit of the issue with the timing of the deployment, because we always want to make sure everybody's safe. And so we were there for it, yes, into the dark, but we actually missed the actual vessel going completely down. But we were able to watch it live. And again, it was very, we were very honored to be a part of it. And we appreciate everything that Okaloosa County has done in getting this project here in Florida. Well, hopefully I'll be able to see you guys soon and get out there myself. Well, what's interesting is obviously it's sunk down pretty deep. I'm not sure of the actual feet. But I know that divers really don't even have to dive down too far because of the height of the ship, right? Correct. Yeah, they probably only have to go down about 60 feet to reach the top of the vessel. So, yeah, it's a it's a pretty it's going to be a pretty cool dive. Wow. That's usually 65, 70 is usually where I like to cap it. Gentlemen, thank you so much. We appreciate you. We're so glad yesterday was successful for you guys and hopefully much more to come. Thanks for coming on here on Fox Tampa Bay Live. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Of course. Take care. Have a great weekend.