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Shipwrecks and Abandoned Vessels

Do you know the story behind a shipwreck or abandoned vessel?

What was it named, when did it wreck, how large was it, and how much of it remains? The Damage Assessment Center (DAC) is collecting information on wrecked and abandoned vessels to help prioritize funding for removing the vessels. The DAC is collecting data, date, coordinates, registry, etc., but the story behind the vessel is just as important as the hard facts.

Abandoned vessels pose a substantial threat to the NOAA Trust resources through physical destruction of coastal habitats and dispersion of toxic chemicals and gear. Current databases are limited in their scope or definition of abandoned vessels. The Damage Assessment Center (DAC) is addressing these issues by creating a comprehensive database; the database will contain as much information as possible about abandoned vessels that could potentially threaten coastal ecosystems in U. S. waters.

	The program has started a large database containing abandoned vessels from across the U. S. and the Pacific islands. Florida, in particular, has a very high number of vessels in the database (500-900), but very little supporting data associated with eachabandoned vessel. Expanding input on the region is critical to the goals of our project.
Photo Credit: Doug Helton, NOAA

A key part of that process is making the public and the coral reef management community aware of the project and encouraging their comments. If you know the story behind a wreck or abandoned vessel, you are invited to contribute to the DAC database using their online form. http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/dac/vessels/form.html