I started this site way back in 1996 for my new hobby. In all that time, I gladly carried the annual cost of hosting and domain name. But it's time to admit that my diving years are over, and my interest has waned.
I have kept the site up as a service to the diving community, but I don't know how much longer that makes sense.
If you would like to make a small donation to help defray that cost, it would be greatly appreciated, and help to keep the site online.
Simply click the PayPal button below or anywhere else you find it:
More: Support NJScuba.net ...
MV John F. Kennedy
MV John F. Kennedy is the last remaining Kennedy-class ferry, formerly operated for the Staten Island Ferry in New York City, New York, United States. It was built by the Levingston Shipbuilding Company between 1963 and 1965 for the Department of Marine and Aviation. The John F. Kennedy operated until 2021, and she was subsequently sold to Paul Italia, Ron Castellano, Colin Jost, and Pete Davidson. As of 2025, restoration of the John F. Kennedy had not yet started.
More: Another Future Reef ...
I have plotted over 1300 local listings from the AWOIS database here:
Above is the lightship Barnegat, LV-79, 1904, stuck in the mud at the defunct Pyne Poynt marina in Camden. The site and the vessel were acquired by Camden County in 2023. Soon after, the county announced the intention of restoring the vessel, but since then nothing has been done, and I doubt anything ever will be. The vessel is in pretty bad shape, stripped of anything of worth, and Camden has more pressing needs for its budget dollars.
More: Future Reef ...
The New York Bight
In the last few weeks I have re-written pretty much the entire WordPress plugin that generates the charts. In addition, I created a new chart style that is truly marine, with color depth contours and boundaries, in place of the old one that was basically just a stripped-down land map. The result is much more useful, and, I think, quite beautiful, with a lot of transparency effects.
All the charts now have secondary styles, generally road maps or satellite imagery, whatever is most appropriate. The alternate style for this chart is the full undersea rendering. Mine is stripped-down to focus on the shallows and run faster. Be warned: you can bog-down or even hang your computer messing around here!
More: Charts ...
I did some clever programming on my WordPress mapping plugin and WordPress theme, and now I have much finer control over the charts. At the moment I am only using it to highlight specific points with color depending on the enclosing page. That gives me a thousand custom charts from a few base ones. Effectively, every site has its own custom chart now.
Manasquan Artificial Reef
More: Customized Charts ...
Dive Sites - pick your starting point
Since starting the site, I used charts with white water and gray land, and when I re-built all the charts in OpenLayers, it was easy enough to duplicate that. But I noticed that when you print a page, the gray land disappears. I have never found any documentation on the OpenLayers json map specifications, but I picked-apart some examples and eventually hacked-together a solution where the land is green and it does print. So hooray for that.
More: One Last Change to the Charts ...
The Susan Rose was re-sunk as an artificial reef in February. Over two months later there still has been no public announcement. Here is the NJDEP contact form if you would like to inquire:
SS United States Finally Leaves Philadelphia to Begin Its Last Chapter
By Forrest Brown and Danny Freeman, CNN
Wed February 19, 2025
After months of multiple delays, the SS United States finally left its longtime home of Philadelphia just before 1 p.m. ET Wednesday. The storied ocean liner's next stop is Mobile, Alabama, where it will be prepared for its final mission - to become an artificial reef off the coast of the Florida Panhandle. The American maritime icon, nearly as large as the Chrysler Building, was launched in 1951 and set the transatlantic speed record in 1952.
More: Reef Program Dodges a Bullet ...
The Susan Rose has been raised and is presently at a dock in Point Pleasant. Hopefully it will be sunk on a New York reef, for all to use.
Dragger Susan Rose Raised One Year After Sinking
National Fisherman Staff
Mid-Atlantic Northeast News
November 22, 2024
The Rhode Island steel trawler Susan Rose was raised from the sea floor this week a year after sinking off Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., removed as a hazard to navigation.
More: Susan Rose Update ...
I finally added two "new" artificial reefs, the Carrabassett on the Axel Carlson Reef and the New England Coast on the Shark River Reef. I have been waiting patiently for the numbers to be released, and was just informed that these two sites are undergoing "a period of successional development and monitoring" before publication. These studies were never announced at the time, in fact the New England Coast was kept out of the newspapers entirely, obviously so the science would not be tainted by the public. I imagine this study is a lot like this one, conducted by NJDEP fisheries biologists Jennifer Resciniti and Bill Figley over the course of 8 years, published in 2003.
More: "New" Artificial Reefs ...
- Type:
- shipwreck, freighter, USA
- Name:
- Kennebec is a county and a major river in the state of Maine.
- Built:
- 1901, Jenks Shipbuilding, Port Huron MI USA
- Specs:
- ( 243 x 43 ft ) 2183 gross tons, 29 crew
- Sunk:
- Saturday June 18, 1921
sprung a leak - no casualties
More: Kennebec ...