Angry British Columbia residents vow to fight artificial reef scuba tourism scheme

April 13, 2010

HOWE SOUND, British Columbia, Canada — Landowners on sleepy Gambier Island are threatening to use a constitutional challenge in their fight to keep an old naval wreck from being sunk as an artificial reef in the pristine waters of Howe Sound. It's the latest skirmish in the battle over whether the two thousand ton Canadian helicopter destroyer HMCS Annapolis can be sunk in Halkett Bay -- a scuba divers' paradise that would be the wreck sunk closest to a big city in B.C. "Nobody wants a lawsuit," said Andrew Strang, one of the landowners. "But we're a determined bunch." The Annapolis is being cleaned of hydrocarbons and heavy machinery by a group of volunteers with the Artificial Reef Society of B.C. They expect to pass an Environment Canada review in the next few months, which would give them permission to sink the vessel in Halkett Bay before the fall. To read the rest of the story, click here.

I'm not a big fan of intentionally sinking ships for the purpose of making artificial reefs, but I understand why it is done. There are arguments to be made for both sides.