Northwest Dive Club

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.

Cory-

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?

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.

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:

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.

: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 :(

bummer indeed. This was a 'first' love site for me... the first time I narc'd

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

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

Yep... thats what it looked like. Systematic dredge lines are all thats left.

Sucks......

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.

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.

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

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

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.

pensacoladiver wrote:

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

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.....

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? :-)

Terrible... :( That's now 3 of my favorite north-end spots wiped out. Edmonds Oil Dock, Langley Reef, and the Gedney barges. Booooo.... :(

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.

I had to go back and look at the initial post date of this thread. It was 13 days later than I expected. Haha

we dove them last weekend, they're still there never removed.

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

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.