Jul 18, 2023 by Triton Staff
A 126-foot Palmer Johnson now has a new home – at the bottom of the ocean off the Florida coast.
It’s worth noting right away that the yacht got there on purpose.
M/Y Time, a 126-foot Palmer Johnson launched in 1988, was scuttled recently in the waters off St Lucie County, Florida. It was a joint project of the Marine Cleanup Initiative and the St. Lucie County Artificial Reef Program. There are about 55 vessels in the area that have been scuttled to help form reefs as part of the county’s program. The yacht had been abandoned for a number of years.
According to the Treasure Coast News, the Marine Cleanup Initiative got the boat in 2022 after a donation. Its final home is the Fort Pierce Sportfishing Club permitted artificial reef, about 15 miles southeast of Fort Pierce Inlet. The reef will be named for A. A. Hendry, an early settler and cattleman in the area.
“Our purpose in St. Lucie County is to help create an artificial reef program to help flourish the reef in our county to make it stronger and better,” Arnold Stirzinger, president of the Marine Cleanup Initiative, said in an interview with WPTV television. “In the last decade, because of the UV rays getting through, it’s becoming harmful to the reefs around the world. The Great Barrier Reef, which is one of the largest ones in the entire world, 3/4 of it has died off because of bleaching from the sun. And when that happens, the reef literally dies and all aquatic life that lives off of these reefs are going to die also.”
Tagged Palmer Johnson, reef, scuttled, St Lucie County
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