New Jersey Scuba Diving

This is my modest proposal for a new reef site that could be shared between New York And New Jersey. 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, so it could take larger vessels than any of the neighboring reefs, Sandy Hook and Sea Girt. The Sandy Hook reef is so shallow that it can only take rubble and the smallest vessels, and the existing New York reefs are not much better. The Long Island coastal waters inshore of the shipping lanes are too shallow to do anything like this.
  
• It is inshore, 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.
  
• There are no undersea cables in the vicinity.
  
• 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. And of course, it is clear of the Shipping Lanes.
  
• 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.

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 all 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