Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

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Jaksonbrown
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Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jaksonbrown »

Went to do one of my favorite dives today. One of my favorite Ling Cod spots. The Hat Island barges. Much to my dismay, they have been removed in the process of improving the break wall of the Marina. I ran a dozen side scan's of the entire area. You can see the dredge patterns on the bottom of the ocean. Very systematic removal of all of the old barges. Nothing more than junk left. Nothing protruding more than a couple of feet off the bottom.

This is a great loss. Not only of a great dive site, but of some incredible habitat. I am amazed that this was allowed to happen.
Very sad day.

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John Rawlings
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by John Rawlings »

A sad day indeed. Those barges were great dive sites. Did they even remove the one at 100 FSW+? How on Earth would removing the sunken barges improve the marina breakwater wall?
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Jaksonbrown
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jaksonbrown »

John Rawlings wrote:A sad day indeed. Those barges were great dive sites. Did they even remove the one at 100 FSW+? How on Earth would removing the sunken barges improve the marina breakwater wall?
In my opinion, they removed the barges to keep divers and fishermen out from in front of the marina. The residents of Hat Island were always unhappy with us being there. They were anything but friendly. I think the marina rebuild was just a good excuse to remove the barges.
We didnt dive the site after determining that the barges had been removed, but it was quite clear on the side scan that they were removed. There was absolutely no life above the wreck site like there usually was. It was barren.
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Dusty2
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Dusty2 »

Another "improvement" of puget sound by the if man put it there it's not good for puget sound crowd.

Sorry, it's hard to fathom this sort of mayhem. :angry: :angry:
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SealScott
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by SealScott »

John Rawlings wrote:How on Earth would removing the sunken barges improve the marina breakwater wall?
That's a very good question, John. Perhaps they removed them in anticipation of the cruise ships they hope to receive into their shiny new port ;o)

A little fact I picked up while looking into the Hat Island marina project: Did you know that the vehicles on Hat Island are not required to have state license plates? Although, having a vehicle on an island that's 1.5 miles long and .5 miles wide does seem a little silly.

Rest in peace, little critters of the Hat Island barges.
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Kola16
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Kola16 »

:angry: I wanted to dive this place so bad. Now I am very depressed. Couldn't they just have moved them 200 yards north or something :(
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by KneeDeep »

bummer indeed. This was a 'first' love site for me... the first time I narc'd
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Jan K
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jan K »

Langley Tire Reef, now this :(
It was such a great place to dive ...
Only memories now
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Jaksonbrown
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jaksonbrown »

Jan K wrote:Langley Tire Reef, now this :(
It was such a great place to dive ...
Only memories now
Image

Yep... thats what it looked like. Systematic dredge lines are all thats left.
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Fishstiq »

Sucks......
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John Rawlings
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by John Rawlings »

The dive sites of my "yesteryear" are being destroyed one by one. The Mukilteo T-Pier used to be tremendous until they "shaved" the bottom and removed all of the sunken logs, (it's now been partially restored due to divers adding some structure, but nowhere near what used to be there). The Edmonds T-Pier was absolutely wonderful, until they destroyed it completely and left nothing but a barren landscape. The Gedney (Hat island) barges were some outstanding boat dives....and now they're gone.

Wonder what site wil be next....depressing.

With the removal of the barges, it won't be long until the residents of Hat Island wonder why they aren't catching as many fish as they used to or as many crabs in their pots as they used to pull up. Tearing out all that structure was foolish on their part.
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Jaksonbrown
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jaksonbrown »

How much money does, or HAS Washington state spent on developing artificial reefs? And now they are tearing up and removing all of these? It makes not sence at all. The barges were a MECCA of fish life and habitat. What a waste.
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Rockfish »

I'm sure of course that the exclusive home owners on Hat Island did their due diligence and performed an Enviromental Impact Study and that they considered the habitat destruction and it's impact on imperiled populations of Rockfish in Puget Sound. I hope that they are not going to disturb any eel grass beds because then they open up a whole new can of worms with destruction of salmon rearing habitat.

I also remember sites that we used to dive but are now gone.

This is one time where change is not a good thing.

Mike
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pensacoladiver
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by pensacoladiver »

Jan K wrote:Langley Tire Reef, now this :(
It was such a great place to dive ...
Only memories now
Image
I might be seeing things, but if you zoom in on that side scan pic, the upper left corner looks like someone wearing a hat. Kinda weird.
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Jaksonbrown
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jaksonbrown »

pensacoladiver wrote:
Jan K wrote:Langley Tire Reef, now this :(
It was such a great place to dive ...
Only memories now
Image
I might be seeing things, but if you zoom in on that side scan pic, the upper left corner looks like someone wearing a hat. Kinda weird.
Nice eye chaddly.... its the ghost of barges past.....
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pensacoladiver
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by pensacoladiver »

Just out of curiosity, has anyone put fins to water and dove here since these things were removed as evidence of sidescan?


Or is it being accepted as gospel based on sidescan? :-)
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seainggreen
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by seainggreen »

Terrible... :( That's now 3 of my favorite north-end spots wiped out. Edmonds Oil Dock, Langley Reef, and the Gedney barges. Booooo.... :(
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pensacoladiver
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by pensacoladiver »

Me still thinks that if all this "awwwww damn, we lost another dive site" hubbub is based upon a few passes with a side scan sonar... The person who actually goes and dives it might be a bit surprised.
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pensacoladiver
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by pensacoladiver »

I had to go back and look at the initial post date of this thread. It was 13 days later than I expected. Haha
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Echo
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Echo »

we dove them last weekend, they're still there never removed.
10608556_10202848291227941_7025352644849923496_o.jpg
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Last edited by Echo on Tue May 12, 2015 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Rockfish »

Thanks for psoting the pics good to know that these are still there.

We will have to put them back on the list of available dive sites.

Mike
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Jaksonbrown
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Re: Hat (Gedney) Island Barges have been removed.

Post by Jaksonbrown »

Dove the Barges on Hat island on Sat based upon this report that they were still there. They have been totally destroyed as my side scan showed. There are still some remnants remaining, but the barges, as they once were, are gone. Having dove this site dozens and dozens of times hunting Ling Cod.... It is very sad to report that although pieces still exist, there is very little life left compared to the mecca it once was.
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