How not to wreck the sea

Deliberately sinking ships might not seem an obvious way to help the world’s marine life – yet increasingly it’s seen as a

viable way to kick-start the world’s marine ecosystems

All around Cyprus, ships are sinking. There’ve been four in little over half a year – first an old French fishing boat sank, then a Russian

trawler and a couple of mini cruise vessels. Yet far from being bad news, boats

keeling onto their sides and disappearing beneath the sea have represented hope – for divers, fishermen and anyone who cares about the marine life around Cyprus. The ships have been deliberately sunk as part of the Cyprus Wreck Programme, a government-sponsored scheme which has created four marine parks around the island, each with their own specially

tailored wrecks, which act as artificial reefs for marine life to breed around; fishing won’t be allowed in the parks.

“Doing this is win-win all round,” says Giorgos Pagiatis, the project manager for the programme, who has been involved since it started more than three years ago. “The fishing conditions have become dangerously bad in Cyprus, and this is a great way to replenish fish stocks. Then there’s the diving industry, which has been pushing us to do this for a long time.”

Cyprus has some form with wrecks. The Swedish-built cargo ship MS Zenobia sank in mysterious circumstances outside Larnaca on its maiden voyage in 1980,

leaving a monster ship filled with more than NOK2 billion worth of cargo, many cars and trucks for which the insurance was never claimed. The Zenobia is today considered one of the best dive sites in the Mediterranean, and it draws 57,000 divers a year. They come not just for the wreck and the mystery surrounding it, but for a cast of fish worthy of Finding Nemo.

Andy Varoshiotis, the vice president of the Cyprus Dive Centre Association, who has also been involved in the Cyprus Wreck Programme from the start, says the newly sunk vessels will provide a link for divers coming to Cyprus. “Instead of coming just to dive the Zenobia, »

W o r d s ⁄ T o b y S k i n n e r

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“These ships are still

serving their country”

Previous page⁄ The Imperial Eagle served as a ferry between Malta and Gozo in the 1970s, and was scuttled off Malta in 1999This page⁄The Almeida Carvalho hydrographic ship surveyed icy waters before she was sunk off the Algarve by Ocean Revival

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visitors will be able to come for package trips, where they might dive three or four wrecks around the island.” Plans to attract 120,000 divers next year is good news – since the Cypriot financial crisis in 2012, when the tax haven’s credit rating was downgraded to “junk”, tourism has overtaken financial services as the island’s number one source of income. The aim is for Cyprus to rival Malta, which is currently the Mediterranean’s diving capital. As Varoshiotis puts it, simply: “We need this.”

The new wrecks aren’t on the scale of the 178m Zenobia. The Nemesis III, the first to be sunk last December, is a 25m fishing trawler, deliberately scuttled in shallower waters just 1km off the shore. At a depth of 21m-25m, it makes a good wreck for beginner and intermediate divers, and complements what’s already a great dive area that boasts an underwater canyon full of stingrays, a Blue Hole and a cliff jump/dive spot called the Chapel.

Since the sinking of the Nemesis III, which was followed by 1,800 curious divers on the first day, the programme has sunk three more ships: the Costandis and Lady Thetis off the coast of Limassol in February, and the Laboe cruise vessel near Paphos last month. Another, XXXXX, will follow in 2015, and plans to further the programme include sinking larger military ships and even fighter jets.

According to Pagiatis, the first stage of the programme has cost around €350,000 »

“When you sink these ships, all you’ve got is a metal skeleton”

This page⁄The fishing vessel Costandis was built in the USSR in 1989 and sunk off Cyprus earlier this year

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(NOK2.86m), funded largely by the European Fisheries Fund with support from the tourist board and divers association, with €80,000 (NOK653,125) spent on acquiring the ships and the vast majority of the rest going into cleaning and preparing them.

“It’s a massive job,” he says. “You have to remove any wiring, asbestos, oils, wood and any traces of liquid, and a lot of these old boats have toxic anti-fowling paint. We also had to make holes and openings in the vessel so that it’s safe for divers. In the end, you’ve basically got a metal skeleton.”

The Nemesis III was sunk by drilling holes into the hull and plugging them with valves. The team of 10 overseeing the project also added cement to the boat’s hull and pumped in water to ensure a swift and straight descent to its resting place.

But what’s really interesting is what happens next. From the first week of the

Nemesis’s sinking, small invertebrates and marine flora started covering the ship’s surface, and squid laid eggs in the vessel. “It slowly creates a chain,” says Pagiatis, who points to the Liberty, a an old Russian cargo sunk 300m from the Nemesis in 2009 as a pilot for the Cyprus Wreck Programme.

Five years on, and the Liberty is almost as vibrant as any natural marine reef. If you dive around the Liberty you might see everything from groupers to eels, octopuses, groupers, parrotfish, squid, bream and yellowtails.

Having used the Liberty as a pilot project, Cyprus’s marine biologists and oceanographers have worked to make sure the latest wrecks will be as welcoming as possible to marine life. As well as the ships »

MaltaWith its warm, blue waters, Malta is one of the world’s top diving spots, and arguably the wreck-diving capital of Europe. During World War II, it’s said the island was the most bombed place on earth, and there are dozens of wrecks from both wars – from battle ships to bomber planes and submarines. Highlights include a crumbling WWII Blenheim bomber, a Beaufighter bomber at 42m, and the protected X127 Water Lighter, which saw action during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. Other wrecks have been deliberately sunk over the years, like the Rozi tugboat and P29 patrol boat, both at Cirkewwa, and the WWII-era Imperial Eagle ship, close to the iconic underwater statue of Christ. visitmalta.com

This page⁄ Divers descend to the wreck of the Zenobia in Cyprus

“ Five years after it was sunk, the Liberty is almost as vibrant as any marine reef”

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themselves, they’re sending down 400 reef balls – man-made concrete balls designed as hatching places for fish – plus other items such as limestone boulders for XXXX and clay pots designed specially for octopuses.

“The Liberty site is full, and it’s growing all the time,” says Varoshiotis. “And every time we dive the Nemesis, we’re seeing new things – it’s incredible watching an ecosystem build before your own eyes.”

With fish and divers happy, the final part of the triumvirate is Cyprus’s fishermen. The way Varoshiotis describes the deal for fishermen, “It’s like a deposit. They agree to not fish in a few areas but they get benefits outside it because of the spill-over effect. Fish will breed in the protected areas and then leave those areas in greater numbers. It’s good news if you’re catching fish.”

Sinking ships to create artificial reefs isn’t a new thing, and it’s far from unique to Cyprus. Japan first introduced primitive artificial reefs in the 1600s, and the practice has been widespread since the 1970s; the Reef Ball Foundation in Georgia, USA, supplies balls to 56 countries.

Malta has sunk six ships in the last 20 years, while Florida alone has sunk four ships in the same period, including the world’s two largest artificial reefs, both decommissioned naval ships – the USS Oriskany in 2004 and the USNS General Hoyt S Vandenberg in 2009, which is notable for its spectacular onboard satellite antennae.

One of Europe’s most ambitious projects in recent years has been the Ocean Revival programme in the Algarve, where four naval ships were sunk in a small area »

Narvik, NorwayNarvik, in Arctic Norway, was an important harbour at the outbreak of World War II, and was the site of an intense battle between Norwegian, German and British forces. The area around the harbour became a graveyard for ships, and while some have been salvaged there are still many left. Uniquely, you can see three German warships on one dive – the destroyers Anton Schmitt, Diether von Roeder and Wilhelm Heidkamp lie close together at just 12m-24m outside Framnesodden. Narvik’s wrecks aren’t as well preserved as the 126m MS Frankenwald, considered the country’s single best wreck, which is among other WWII wrecks in the Sognefjord, north of Bergen. divenarvik.com

This page⁄The Lady Thetis was built as a recreational cruise vessel in Germany and sunk alongside the Costandis in Cyprus

“ The Algarve is known for beaches and golf, but never as a diving destination”

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close to Faro in 2012 and 2013, including the 102m, 2,700-tonne Hermenegildo Capelo frigate, a naval ship since the 1960s.

The man behind the plan is Luis Sa Couto, who started working on Ocean Revival more than six years ago. “I’ve dived since I was 16, and I’ve always loved wreck dives,” says Couto, who runs a diving centre at Praia da Rocha, on the Algarve. “The primary idea was to create a public attraction. This area is known for beaches and golf, but it’s never been seen as a diving destination. We were creating something out of nothing.”

The bill for cleaning the ships alone came to a whopping €2 million (NOK16.3m), which Couto and his team raised largely from corporate sponsorship. “The ships were donated, so the rigorous process of cleaning the ships and adapting them for safe diving made up 80 per cent of the cost of the project,” he says.

Couto, like Pagiatis, emphasises safety because one of the key objections to wrecks as artificial reefs has been the possibility of danger. Five people have died at the HMCS Yukon, which was sunk off the San Diego coast in 2000, with complaints that it’s too deep (30m) and too disorientating for divers operating with limited air. “The key with the Ocean Revival wrecks,” says Couto, “is you can always see the way out. We’ve done a lot of work to make sure you won’t get trapped.”

And when you’re diving, the fish will be plentiful. Couto says, “Things happened »

Dive eastern Cyprus

Tina Bose, who owns the Poseidon Dive Centre in Protaras with husband

Kiron, explains why the area is so good for

diving: “Even if you don’t go to the MS Zenobia – which is 40 minutes away and one of the

world’s best wreck dives – there are around 15

great dive sites around Protaras, easily enough for a week. Because it’s mostly rocky, the water is really clear – visibility can be up to 40m – and there are lots of good dives for beginners,

like Green Bay, which is this large, shallow

lagoon surrounded by rocks teeming with

life. For slightly more experienced divers,

you’ll see moray eels, octopuses and even

turtles at Crystal Cove. Another great dive is the

Cave at Cape Greco, which has really clear water and great swim-

throughs. It’s a super dive.”

poseidoncyprus.com

Normandy, FranceThe waters off France’s north-west coast are a veritable underwater museum of ships from D-Day, quite possibly the most important sea invasion of modern times. From Sherman tanks to U-boats to Schnellboot E-boats, it’s an area for advanced divers only, with many of the swim-throughs particularly challenging. The war relics, all of them protected, include the Norwegian ship HMNS Svenner, which was hit by German torpedoes with a loss of 48 lives, and the Susan B Anthony, an American vessel named after the Quaker who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement.

extremediveadventures.com/destinations/normandy

Above⁄ Diving at the Zenobia, CyprusRight⁄The Lady Thetis lies at a depth of 21m-23m off Limassol

“This is an intelligent way of disposing of ships – it’s for divers, fishermen and the sea”

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Want to stay dry?

The world’s only fully intact 17th-century ship is on display at Stockholm’s Vasa

Museum – the stunning 64-gun warship was

launched in 1627, salvaged in 1959 and

now forms the basis of Scandinavia’s most visited museum, on Djurgården.

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fast: after a month you could see huge schools of fish, which started attracting bigger fish.” Today you’ll find everything from groupers to conger eels, sea bass and even damselfish around the old wrecks, as well as crabs, lobsters and up to 150 species of invertebrates.

“The University of the Algarve has been studying the wrecks, too,” he says. “It’s a unique opportunity to watch an ecosystem grow, and they’re really excited about it.” Divers have been excited, too – from practically zero, th e area is expecting 7,000 dives this year.

The final argument against sinking ships for artificial wrecks seems to be it’s a form of waste disposal, putting man-made

Great non-wreck dives

Silfra, Thingvellir,

iceland This extraordinary

fresh water dive in the Thingvellir National Park takes you down into a narrow crack between the American and the European continental

shelves, in astonishingly clear water. On sunny

days, the light breaks into a rainbow of colours.

The Blue Hole, Gozo

Gozo’s Blue Hole is a spectacular dive which

starts in a 10m wide inland sea pool and

takes you through a huge archway into a Nemo-like tunnel to the Azure Window coral garden,

passing parrotfish, damselfish and octopus

along the way.

Secca della Colambara, Ustica

Though there is a wreck at the end, this dive on

the island of Ustica, north of Sicily, is better

known for its steep walls, spectacular sponge

formations and shoals of barracuda, amberjack

and crayfish.

Florida Keys, USAThe waters around Florida Keys, a road trip from Fort Lauderdale, are some of the best for diving in the States. Partly it’s due to natural reefs, but the area has also become a focal point for deliberately sunk vessels, from the gloriously named Joe’s Tug to the 155m Spiegel Grove landing ship. The most impressive is the USNS Gen Hoyt S Vandenberg, which was deliberately sunk in 2009 – having once tracked Cold War Soviet missiles and NASA launches, it’s now the world’s second-largest deliberately sunk vessel, 159m long and featuring spectacular satellite dishes. It’s even hosted an underwater exhibition by photographer Andreas Franke. divekeywest.com

items in a natural environment. This doesn’t hold much sway with Couto: “It’s for divers, it’s for fishermen, it’s for the sea. The way we see it, this is an intelligent way of disposing of ships – these ships are still serving Portugal.”

Or, as Giorgos Pagiatis of the Cyprus Wreck Programme puts it: “Usually, a vessel goes to a scrapyard after 50 years. This is a nice end – our trawlers have gone from catching fish to hosting them. There’s a beautiful symmetry to that.”

dca-cy.com

Norwegian flies to Larnaca, Faro and Fort Lauderdale. Book flights, a hotel and a rental car at norwegian.com

Top⁄The Cyprus Wreck Programme sunk the Costandis to about 25m

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