[Coral-List] Reef Destruction in North Carolina

Greg Challenger gchallenger at msn.com
Tue Nov 30 09:17:00 EST 2010


Captain Glisson:
 
If you took photographs I would provide them along with the coordinates and the rest of the information to either the state or federal government depending on how far offshore the shoals are located.   The North Carolina Dept.. Of Environment and Natural Resources regulates a variety of things that the divers may have violated.   The number for the Coastal Management Division is 252-808-2808  http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/guest
 
If the site is in Federal Waters the USACE(Corps of Engineers) and/or NOAA may be interested.  The Wilmington District of the Corps serves North Carolina.  They regulate sediment removal or fill in waters of the United States and enough may have been moved to be a violation.  http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/
 
If they cant help they should know who to contact.
 
Best regards,
 
 
Greg E. Challenger
Marine Scientist/Principal
Polaris Applied Sciences, Incorporated
12525 131st Ct NE Kirkland, WA 98034 
425-823-4841 
425-823-3805 fx 
206-369-5686 cell 
visit us at: www.polarisappliedsciences.com
 



 
> From: primarypredator at nc.rr.com
> Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:10:03 -0500
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject: [Coral-List] Reef Destruction in North Carolina
> 
> 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> > From: gonediving700 at aol.com
> > Date: November 26, 2010 7:50:45 PM EST
> > To: gonefishing600 at aol.com
> > Subject: Letter
> > 
> > I sent the following letter out today to numerous dive shops, people in marine conservation and other government agencies, I hope you approve.
> > 
> > To whom it may concern and this should concern everyone in the diving and marine conservation community!
> > 
> > There is a system of reefs off the coast of South East North Carolina in the Frying Pan Tower area that are some of North Carolina’s most beautiful reefs, and are considered by many in the diving community world class diving. Some of these reefs also contain an abundance of Megalodon fossilized shark teeth which is the point of this letter. These fossilized sharks teeth bring divers from all over the United States and even the world in search of these rare and beautiful treasures. These shark teeth range anywhere from ½ to 6 + inches, and have become quite valuable depending on size and quality. If you are not familiar with these fossils visit ebay.com and type Megalodon shark teeth.
> > 
> > On the weekend of 11/21/2010 (me and some friends) where headed out to one of our favorite fossil ledges in the Frying Pan Tower area. As we approached our destination we spotted another dive boat on the same ledge. The boat was the Flying Fish which is owned and operated by a dive shop from Cape Hatteras, by the name of Outer Banks Diving www.outerbanksdiving.com. We had heard that the Flying Fish had been destroying the ledges by using scooters to dig into the sand in search of shark teeth, so we decided to anchor beside her to check out the rumors.
> > 
> > We all were absolutely horrified by what we saw. Great big holes everywhere, and in some case all of the sand had been completely blown away for hundreds of square feet. It looked like a dredge or plow had gone through the entire area and cleaned out the reef, displacing the sand and exposing the hard bottom. They are using underwater scooters to blow the sand away and dig down to the hard bottom by turning the scooters around backwards and using them as big blowers, systematically blowing all the sand away from the reefs down to the hard bottom in search of megaladon teeth, and all for monetary gain.
> > 
> > So imagine for a moment, 20 divers on one ledge for 10 to 15 days, all equipped with a DPV and a set of doubles on their back for extended dives of up to 90 minutes, and do this in a very organized fashion possibly setting up a grid, and not leaving the area until they have completely left no stone un-turned. Doing this is making the reefs look dead, and very unattractive, I can't imagine it is legal to destroy an eco system like that, but it certainly isn't moral or ethical. Leave something for future generations.
> > 
> > We don’t mind them coming down and looking for sharks teeth, and enjoying our underwater world, but
> > Coming in and destroying our reefs is unacceptable. At the rate their going, in the next couple of years they will have destroyed most of the reefs in that area. So, I am asking you please get involved and help us save these natural reefs for us and the next generation of divers, by putting pressure on the crew and the owners of Outer Banks Diving to stop vandalizing our reefs.
> > 
> > Please call John and Amy Pieno at 252-986-1056 or email them @ flyingfishdivesobx at embarqmail.com, and tell them to please stop destroying our reefs. If this email is of no interest to you, please forward this email to any person you think would be interested in the destruction of this reef system.
> > 
> > 
> > Thank You for you Consideration.
> > 
> > Captain Bruce Glisson
> > 
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