JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A barge is designed to float.
But the goal was to sink one particular barge this summer so it could become an artificial reef.
Early one morning this summer, as the sun pushed above the horizon, Captain Will Hinton and his team headed off Jacksonville’s coast.
They were bound to meet up with a barge already in place, 28 miles offshore.
Hinton spoke into the maritime radio, "We’re joining the party. Where do you want us?"
The retired barge from MOBRO Marine in Green Cove Springs had been gutted and cleaned so it was safe for the environment.
It was then pulled out by a tug that morning, and it was ready to sink to its new home.
The destination: 90 feet below the ocean’s surface to become an artificial reef. The goal was to "create new habitat offshore," Joe Kistel explained.
He was in charge of this project. Kistel has sunk other vessels before to create artificial reefs.
Three years ago, he sunk two sizable boats in one day. They are now artificial reefs about 1,000 feet away where the barge will be. Three years later, they are teeming with marine life.
Josh Beard, a diver who works for Hinton's dive company Nautical Divers, said they dive near these wrecks often. "We've seen numerous Goliath grouper, cobia," and all kinds of other fish.
Hinton said, "The diving offshore here is amazing."
Hinton runs a recreational diving company in Jacksonville, taking customers to see the deeper side of the First Coast.
"It’s just a lot of life here in Jacksonville, because we don’t have the same about of drivers as we do down south in Florida," Beard explained.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s office dive team even practices on those recently created artificial reefs.
These reefs are also hot spots for fisherman.
Fishing and diving are multimillion-dollar industries in Florida.
And that one morning this summer, as Hinton approached the barge, he said, "This is the first time actually getting to witness a new artificial reef being dropped."
It was hard to tell just how big the barge was when it was out offshore, with very little on the water to which you could compare its size. It's 175 feet long -- that's the equivalent of a 17 story building lying on its side.
"All it is is a big metal box that floats," Kistel said, describing the massive vessel.
So he and his team – who were on the barge – filled it with water by pumping water into it.
It felt like a time-consuming process. Holes had already been created on the barge’s side, letting waves flow in.
Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Florida and the Cameron Smith Foundation helped foot the bill to deploy the former crane barge off Duval County to create the “Ripper Reef.”
The barge was placed deliberately at the pre-permitted reef site known as Harm’s Ledge located 28 miles east of Jacksonville inlet. It's approximately 30° 21.969'N 80° 54.365'W. The area is known to attract flounder, snapper, gag grouper, black sea bass and other species.
“We are not only excited to sink the largest vessel in Northeast Florida in almost 25 years but to do it with legendary golfer Cameron Smith makes this deployment iconic,” CCA Florida Executive Director Brian Gorski said. “CCA Florida aims to improve and create sustainable fisheries, coastal habitats and waterways, and the Ripper Reef is an extension of that commitment.”
CCA representatives, Smith, and others on various boats encircled the Kistel and his team fill the barge with water.
"It seems like you get to this critical point where things start to go fast," Kistel said. "Then it’s like, 'we gotta get off!'"
Everyone – and every pump – quickly got off the slowly sinking barge onto other boats.
Now aboard the Nautical Divers boat with Captain Hinton, Kistel watched the barge as it started to lean, tilting to its side.
Kistel whispered to the barge, "Come on. Right yourself."
There was a chance the barge could flip as it sank, which would mean it could land upside down.
Hinton, watching the tilted barge fill with water, said, "If it flips, that’s not cool."
Kistel described those minutes of waiting as "a nail biting moment. We prefer the vessel to be in an upright orientation.'
It makes for better diving if it lands upright. Also, if the barge lands upside down, all the cameras Kistel has attached to the barge are lost.
And then, the barge made a smoot movement to a 90 degree angle, and sank under below the ocean's surface, sending a giant spray of water into the sky.
Winton cries in glee, "Ohhhh! There she goes!" Clapping and cheering could be heard from the half-dozen boats which had gathered.
Kistel spoke into the maritime radio, “Thank you everybody. Great job.”
Then it was time to see how it landed.
Kistel, Beard, and others suited up in wetsuits and donned scuba gear and jumped in to the ocean to answer the question: is the barge upright?
Minutes passed as other waiting on the boats for word from the divers.
Kistel emerges to the surface by dive boat, takes out his mouthpiece and yells, "Yeah, it’s right side up! Great!"
And the cameras attached to the sunken vessel captured video rarely seen of a barge sinking below the waves.
"It’s a very unique way to recycle," Kistel said.
Kistel foresees the barge on the bottom of the ocean can become full of corals, fish, and other marine life within two years.
"It’s kind of a euphoric moment to see that you basically were able to turn a somewhat barren area seafloor into this thriving habitat," Kistel noted. "This is doing a good thing for the environment. They're new destinations where fishermen and scuba divers can go to."
The process of sinking large vessels and capturing the efforts on camera is a blend of art and science. It's taking an old barge that had "a 40 year life already, and giving it another 50 years of live offshore," Kistel said.
He added: "And I just think that’s amazing."