New Jersey Scuba Diving

This is my modest proposal for a new reef site that could be shared between New York And New Jersey, something that first occurred to me over 20 years ago. As drawn, it is about one square mile. This site has a lot of advantages:

• It is relatively deep, the chart shows 12-13 fathoms at mean low water, or 72-84 feet. All three of the wrecks on the chart above are at 85 feet. So this site could take larger vessels than any of the nearby New York or New Jersey reefs.
  
  The Sandy Hook reef is so shallow that it can only take rubble and the smallest vessels, and the existing New York reefs are even shallower. The Long Island coastal waters inshore of the shipping lanes are too shallow to do anything like this, and locating an artificial reef at the confluence of the shipping lanes is never going to happen.
  
  
• It is inshore, approximately 6 nautical miles off the beach, and a reasonable drive from ports in both New York and New Jersey. This is good for all parties: divers, fishermen, and reef-builders hauling material from New York.
  
  Distance from inlets: (S to N)
  
  - Manasquan - 12.5 nm
  - Shark River - 8.5 nm
  - Sandy Hook - 14.5 nm
  - Rockaway - 17.5 nm
  - East Rockaway - 20 nm
  - Jones Island - 23 nm
  
  
• There are no undersea cables or other obstructions in the vicinity, and it is clear of the shipping lanes (pink areas). It is in Federal waters, so neither state would have greater jurisdiction.
  
  
• The bottom is clean pebbly sand, and the location is clear of the dirty water that dumps out of the Hudson River into the Mud Hole. It is also far enough south and offshore to avoid the vicious tidal currents that are a daily occurrence closer-in in this part of the coast.
  
  
• It is close to a popular fishing and diving wreck - the Pinta, so you know this run is not too far. It is very convenient to Shark River inlet, not bad for Manasquan and Raritan Bay, and about as good as it gets for Rockaway.
  
  
• It is close to the largest population center on the East Coast - the New York metropolitan area, unlike the reefs of southern New Jersey and eastern Long Island, which are convenient for a lot more pine trees than people.

You can see another deep area south of East Rockaway inlet, but that spot has a number of drawbacks. It is in the highly congested approaches to New York Harbor. It is also in the outflow of the Hudson River, which can make for very murky and dark conditions, although that probably wouldn't matter to fishermen.

The collaboration with Delaware has been very fruitful for both South Jersey and Delaware. Perhaps a collaboration with New York could do the same for North Jersey and New York. But the impetus for this would have to come from the New York side; New Jersey already gets most of New York's reef material, so has much less incentive to do something like this. So New Yorkers, get off your duffs and make it happen !!!

Build it and they will come

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Above is the last of the old charts. For over 20 years, carefully constructed images, and html image maps, based on spreadsheets, and all painstakingly assembled by hand, served as the navigation system for much of the website.