Progress report summarizing the reef fish sampling, PCB - Earthjustice

2011 the stern scour hole reaches a maximum depth of 220 feet (Bryan Clark,
personal communication).
II (A) (1) (a) Oriskany Reef Storm Damage Assessments
Two of these dive assessments were intended to confirm possible damage or depth
and orientation changes to the ship from major storms. On August 31, 2008,
Hurricane Gustav, a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph (185 km/h) winds passed
offshore of the Oriskany and made landfall in Louisiana, sending large swells and
tides into the Pensacola area. The first dive reports to FWC provided by local divers
following the storm indicated that the Oriskany Reef had settled into the sediments.
The Oriskany Reef had a greater navigational clearance than before and had a
slight list of about 5° to starboard (MBT Dive and Surf shop web site). On October
16, 2008 FWC divers made a dive on the Oriskany to conduct an annual fish census,
confirm the change in navigational clearance, and check for structural damage.
Based on dive computer depth measurements, FWC divers concluded the ship had
subsided to an additional depth of about 10 to 11 feet depending on where the
measurements were taken the navigational clearance above the very top of the
island increased to 77 feet from the original 68 feet as measured one day after
deployment (Horn and Mille, 2006). The flight deck measured 145 feet deep
adjacent to the island instead of 135 feet as measured the day after sinking.
Overall the ship had settled about 10 feet deeper into the sediments, but no
additional damage was noted.
On November 10, 2009, tropical storm Ida made landfall in Alabama very near
Pensacola. The storm had attained its peak intensity as a Category 2 hurricane
with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) as it moved over the Gulf before being
downgraded to a tropical storm upon land fall. Waves 17 to 20 feet were
documented at the offshore NOAA data buoys during the storm. The first local dive
reports following the storm event reported that there was structural damage to the
island portion of the ship (Jim Phillips, personal communication, 2009). On
November 19, 2009, FWC divers confirmed that up to 1000 square feet of the thin
sheet metal covering of both sides of the ship’s smokestack had become detached
(Horn and Mille, 2009). The metal had become disassociated from that portion of
the ship’s island which covered the funnels leading to the smokestack. The port side
sheet metal ripped away had fallen onto the flight deck at the base of the port side
of the island. The collapse of the exterior sheet metal resulted in a vertical opening
measuring 10 ft wide by 50 ft tall on both sides of the smokestack, but did not result
in major structural damage to the ship (Figure 6). The new east-to-west “swim
through” opening penetrating all the way through the smokestack has increased
complexity around the island. The opening also made the ship a better dive
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