The Kinta S was sunk off the coast of Texas in order to serve as an artificial reef. The retired freighter was scuttled in the Gulf of Mexico so that it can serve as a new home for marine life in the area.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department led the project to sink the 40-year-old ship. After slipping beneath the waves, the derelict freighter sank 75 feet to its watery grave off the coast of Mustang Island.
The Corpus Christi Nearshore Reef stretches over 169 feet, consisting of several thousand tons of concrete culverts and 470 concrete pyramids. The retired freighter joins this network of underwater platforms for marine life. The building of that feature started in 2013, providing a home for a diverse range of species.
The Kinta S is 155 feet long, making the ship the largest vehicle to be turned into a reef since 2006, when the Texas Clipper, at 473 feet, was scuttled. The freighter was built in Japan, and launched in 1976. The ship was last registered in Panama, and it served carrying supplies around the Caribbean.
"The Kinta S was just a rusty, outdated cargo vessel with no historical significance, but now she will live on as underwater habitat for marine life and an interesting destination for scuba divers," Dale Shively, director of the artificial reef program for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said.
The Texas artificial reef program is one of the largest in the world, creating 68 separate sites that each cover between 40 and 360 acres. Most of these underwater structures start nine miles from shore, where federal control begins over the ocean. The most distant reefs lay 100 miles off-shore. Red snapper and other deep-sea species thrive in the environment.
The Kinta S was salvaged in Miami, Florida, before being towed to a dockyard in Alabama. There, workers cleaned the vehicle, and cut several holes in the ship, which were then covered with plywood. The boat was then brought by tugboat to Texas. Sinking was delayed by a few days due to poor weather. When conditions cleared, the plywood covers were removed and the boat began taking on water.
Much of the marine wildlife off the coast of Texas spend at least part of their life cycle attached to a hard surface. However, the Gulf of Mexico in the region offers few places where plants and animals can take hold. The reefing programs offer these marine life forms a chance to thrive. Corals, barnacles and sponges growing on the artificial reefs serve as the basis of the aquatic food chain in the area.
