- NARRATOR: We're celebrating 10 years of The Texas Clipper
serving as an artificial reef for the marine life
and people of Texas.
[splash]
[inspirational music]
These divers are visiting the most complex artificial reef
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has ever created.
In just one year, thousands of fish have made this
their new home.
The Texas Clipper has become, "An Ocean Oasis".
- TIM O'LEARY: Okay guys, today's dive as you know
is to the Texas Clipper.
There are three must see parts of this dive.
The first...
- NARRATOR: Tim O'Leary owns and operates the
American Diving Center on South Padre Island.
He takes sport divers out to explore the Texas Clipper
which now teems with marine life.
- TIM: Texas Parks & Wildlife has taken a section of the
Gulf of Mexico that was once a barren dessert,
and created an enormous ecosystem of some
180,000 square feet of substrate,
to bring new life for both the fisherman and the divers.
I never thought it would happen.
I am ecstatic.
And for me this is like a, uh, unbelievable dream
come true for South Texas.
And I am just shocked that it's in my own backyard.
- NARRATOR: Over the past 60 years, the Texas Clipper
has had three very different lives.
She transported troops during World War II,
carried the well-to-do across the Atlantic for leisure
during the 50s,
and then taught maritime cadets how to command a ship.
Now she will spend her fourth and final life as an
artificial reef attracting
marine life, scuba divers and anglers.
- TIM: This is a world-class wreck.
I want Texans and Texas to get excited.
[helicopter whirring]
- NARRATOR: When Texas Parks & Wildlife acquired The Clipper,
they spent a year cleaning it of all hazardous materials
and creating openings for water flow and wildlife.
She was then towed to the location of her final home,
17 miles from South Padre Island.
When the ship started to sink, not everything happened
according to the plan.
- DALE SHIVELY: We spent 10 years planning this
and everything rides on the sinking.
And we're going to do controlled flooding to eliminate
the use of explosives to protect marine life.
But, by using controlled flooding, at any point in time,
something could go wrong and the ship can roll over on its side
or roll upside-down which would be the last thing
that we want to happen.
[helicopter whirring]
The ship started to take on water on its port side,
the left side, and we assumed that the water would go across
the ship to the other side, the starboard side
and equalize itself out.
That wasn't the case.
It should be in an upright position,
it should be going down evenly.
[rushing water]
This was not what we had bargained for,
this is not what we had planned for for 10 years.
[helicopter whirring] [rushing water]
As soon as the ship went down, it was obvious that it was
laying on its port side.
The sink plan called for controlled flooding which would
allow water to come in on both sides of the ship evenly.
And as the ship took on water, the water never transferred
to the starboard side and it kept listing to port.
So that as the vessel went down it basically went down bow
first, the bow hit the bottom and then it laid on its
port side on the bottom.
- RADIO VOICE: Hurricane Ike expected to make landfall late
tonight or early tomorrow along the Texas coast line.
Including the possibility of...
- NARRATOR: If sinking on its side wasn't enough,
just 10 months later Hurricane Ike flanked the Texas Clipper.
It is believed the very strong currents created by the
hurricane caused a crack in the stern, creating a
15-foot-wide opening in the ship.
- DALE: From the perspective of being an artificial reef
or marine habitat, the ship is functioning.
It would be much better if it was in an upright position
where most of the marine life could be up in the higher
water column where there's more light.
[waves lapping, birds squawk]
- NARRATOR: South Padre Island.
Now added to all the things you can do here are diving
and fishing the Texas Clipper.
- It's a blast, I mean to see all the different kinds of fish
life and the various marine life because you never know.
Each dive is different.
We saw a manta last time we were out here.
So there's no two dives that are exactly alike
no matter how many times you do it.
It's different every single time.
- There will be a huge economic impact for both the
town of South Padre Island and the dive shops throughout Texas,
as well as the restaurants, the bars, the campgrounds,
the gasoline station.
Impact of the tourist dollar increase in this area
will be enormous.
- Here at South Padre Beach Resort, we definitely have seen
a positive impact ever since the Clipper has been sunk.
- The Clipper's been a great benefit to us,
you know it's bringing in divers in November and December
when we've never seen them before.
- NARRATOR: And the fishing at the Clipper...
- It couldn't be better, the fish come in
and they just keep coming in, and they keep coming in,
and they breed there.
This Clipper's going to be fantastic for this area.
It really is.
- ANGLER: Artificial reefs are real, real good huh.
See this fish.
Oh yeah, they're great!
- Woo!
Fishin' Texas baby!
Ha, ha!
- NARRATOR: The University of Texas at Brownsville,
Department of Biological Sciences is conducting
a monitoring program.
- CARLOS: Good morning everyone.
- NARRATOR: They are studying the health of the Texas Clipper
as an artificial reef.
David Hicks and Carlos Cintra-Buenrostro
are the co-principal investigators.
- Our role is, we have a monitoring program
in which we're basically documenting the transformation
of the Texas Clipper as a steel ship into a living
biological reef.
One aspect of our research is looking at the species
that actually colonize the hull of the ship.
And to document this, we are using a photographic technique.
We also scrape certain areas of the ship and collect these same
plants and animals and bring them back to the lab for more
definite identification.
- This ship is actually functioning
as it is supposed to.
It is becoming an artificial reef.
We already start even seeing changes in the type of creatures
that are moving into the neighborhood.
And yes, it is working as it is supposed to be.
[majestic music]
- NARRATOR: The Texas Clipper now rests at her new home
off the South Texas coast.
In her previous 60 years of life she was a military ship,
a cruise liner,
and a teaching vessel.
She took care of her passengers and crew, and carried them
to ports all around the world.
Now she is an oasis for her newest passengers,
the marine life of the Gulf of Mexico.
- Just because it's sunk doesn't mean it's over.
The ship has a whole life ahead of it.
This was more than a ship, it touched so many lives.
Now it'll live on as an artificial reef where it will
benefit marine life and future Texans.
[majestic music]
[splash]
[uplifting music]
We're here to look at the Clipper to see how it's
progressed in its 10 year history.
Well for me personally, having worked on this ship project,
this is quite an adventure to come back 10 years later
and see that it's a tremendous dive opportunity,
it's a great place for fishing,
and it's a great place of marine habitat.
[uplifting music]
It's a recreational dive for those who don't want to go
too far down.
You can do a pretty decent dive at around 60 to 80 feet.
And for those who want to venture deeper,
even tech divers can go inside of the wreck.
So I think it's a great dive destination.
[uplifting music]
Lots of marine life, a lot of coral,
juvenile reef species of all different types.
You've got thousands and thousands of square feet
of hard surface area and you can see that where the marine life
is growing on the ship itself.
I would consider this a big success for an artificial reef.