38°30.900’N / 074° 30.900’W
On June 15, 2018 an 11-month project was completed when the State of Delaware sank the Twin Capes, a ferry boat that once served the Cape May/Lewes run across Delaware Bay. The ferry was sold by the Delaware Bay and River Authority to Coleen Marine in Norfolk, VA. Coleen Marine did all the preparation work then when the ferry hit the bottom of the ocean they sold it back to the State of Delaware. This process is necessary because of liability concerns.
The ferry will make an excellent fish habitat with all the compartments and surface areas where mussels will grow within the first year and then a complete marine habitat will develop.
The ferry was sunk at the Del-Jersey-Land reef site where several other large ships have been placed. This site is already very popular with bottom fishermen who target tog, black sea bass and summer flounder.
Funding for this project is the result of Artificial Reef Project Leader Jeff Tinsman’s efforts to retain a bank of matching funds from donations made by various entities. The largest donation was the subway cars from New York City. Since New York paid for everything from the cars, to the preparation to the deployment Jeff was able to bank that money for future use. Unfortunately, a bean counter somewhere in the federal system decided Delaware could not bank that money indefinitely. They gave him until May 31 to use it or lose it.
As you may recall, the weather this past spring was pretty bad, and it takes three good weather days to move the ferry up from Norfolk and then sink it. We didn’t have suitable conditions until mid-June and the feds gave us a bit of an extension.
I have been on several sinkings and some ships, like the Radford, take forever to go down. The Twin Capes sank in less than an hour from the time the crew from Coleen Marine made the final cuts to let the water inside the boat. After the Radford sank we had a hurricane pass over the Del-Jersey-Land Reef and it split the ship in two. The Twin Capes landed on her side and only time and the sea will determine where she ends up.
The Del-Jersey-Land Reef is one of the most popular fishing locations out of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. This spring it was the only consistent producer of black sea bass who didn’t come inshore to their more common locations such as the Old Grounds and Reef Site 11. During warmer weather of late summer and early fall I would expect to see triggerfish and spadefish attracted to this site. King mackerel is another species that could show up here in the next few years.
Having large ships like the Radford, the Tamaroa and the Twin Capes should allow this reef to continue producing good fishing for many years to come.
