Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Sinking the SS United States
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Welcome back. I'm Rick Alton. This is Rick's Blog Live next month, which is just around the corner. In Oklaosa County, they're going to sink the SS United States. This is something we've been talking about in our community or in the country. Who is going to get this ship to create the largest w reef, man-made reef in the world? And this is it's going to be right close to us. This is a big project for Coastal Conservation Associ Association. We've got the Pensacola, Florida chapter president with us now, Mimi Bass. Mimi, thank you for coming. Tell Mimi Bass: Thank you. Rick Outzen: who people who aren't, you know, don't know much about your group, tell us just a little bit about it. Mimi Bass: So CCA Florida Coastal Conservation Association. We're celebrating our 40th year as an organization, and we're the largest marine environmental organization in the United States. So we're kind of like Ducks Unlimited, our buckmaster, in that we're an advocacy for sportsman fishing. So we're there to help preserve your share catch, mine, as well as comfort conservation and education. Rick Outzen: Yeah, and we know you know, we had the risky knee here, gosh, twenty years ago, where that was sunk off of the coast here. When it sank it kinda it went by really quick. You and I were talking about how qu it didn't take much to sink it. but then it settled and and it's hasn't quite worked completely the way everybody thought it would, although it's still been a great draw. This has been a big taking for C C A to take to take on. Mimi Bass: you betcha. This is our largest individu excuse me, individual contribution of $500,000 just for this the sinking of the project. The Okaloosa group that has put this together with the lead of like Alex Fogg there and their natural resources, they've really done a phenomenal job in preparing this vessel, getting it here. I've toured it a couple times and you can see some of the photographs. It is phenomenal and it is big. Nine hundred and ninety feet. Wow. So the goal is that it's gonna be rest on more of a secure rock bottom and at about sixty five feet to be able to reach the Rick Outzen: It'll be on the western side of Oklaosa County, so it won't be that far from us. Mimi Bass: no, no. And once you get out into the Gulf you're headed that way. So yeah, it's about it'll be twenty two miles, about twenty two miles out there. And I think I'd shared the coordinates with you that they're also available on the C C A. Rick Outzen: And this is this was a cruise ship, right? Mimi Bass: Well yeah, the it was originally built in nineteen fifty one and it is quite the pride of American engineering at the time. It w I believe it may even still be the largest US billed passenger ship and it holds the transatlantic record in crossing. So it's a narrow, long ship, very fast. and it's very like I said, very noble that we have this opportunity for it to be here. Rick Outzen: Yeah, when I when I put this up on the blog, I'm gonna I'm gonna link to the page because you look at the it it's it it it's an amazing ship when you look through all the the the inside and the I think for fishermen it'll be great. I think for scuba for the scuba enthusiast i it could be really creepy and interesting to go through. Mimi Bass: Yeah. They've opened up areas where they will have some safer access. Uhhuh. but yeah, when I toured it I see a lot of habitat. I walk through there and I know there's gonna be an octopus living in there and that looks like a big groupers residence, so it's gonna be something. Rick Outzen: Now in December y'all have got a big fundraiser coming up. Mimi Bass: Right, our Pensacola banquet. We moved it to December ninth because of the storm and a lot of people not needing to get out. So it'll be at Xanders Beach. It's a great time for people to come and learn more about CCA, the camaraderie of other fishermen. Our banquets, our sportsmen banquets, and they're a lot of fun. They are just fun. And everybody leaves with a lot of swag. We have a lot of door prizes. We have a lot of silent auction items. We give away we have auction items of boats. We've had people win boats at our things. We've had even in our tournaments, local people win truck boat combos. So our s our our event's pretty fun. Rick Outzen: Did how did you get involved? What drew you in? Mimi Bass: Well, I just as a person who had always enjoyed fishing and I think red snapper was one of my species and when our share catch kept getting less and less I felt like as a sportsman fishing I needed a voice and not just Tallahassee but also in Washington and that's what CCA serves. If you go to our website and you look at the initiatives getting rid of long lining in the Gulf from rigs to reefs. in p instead of imploding abandoned reefs, letting them continue to be an environmental habitat to our fish release in the Duke fishery and hatchery that we've partnered with and just released over five hundred thousand fish, red fish into our estuary systems. And these are genetically involved right fish by scientists so they can survive in that habitat. So it's just so much work to be done. And it's really Rick Outzen: taking up for the sports fishermen, is it. Because we know there's always the the commercial fishermen have a huge lobby and of course they have a lot at stake in the economy, but the sports fishing needed a spokesman for that too. So Mimi Bass: Yes, thank you. That's exactly it. Rick Outzen: Well, I appreciate you bringing this to us. I think that this is something that that I I think it kinda fell off everybody's radar because it was such a big issue for the last couple of years. but I think for us and for our community to have know that we have it right there. And then we also have your your big banquet and auction coming up in December. So anything we can do to help promote it we'll do. Mimi Bass: Thank you, thank you so much. We really appreciate all your work. Rick Outzen: well thank you for coming on. All right. This is we've been everywhere in this show. We're gonna head take a break. I'll try to figure out how to wrap all this up. I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's blog live.