PHILADELPHIA-- --There are people in Maryland who could write a $200,000 check for a boat without batting an eye.
The owner of the Orioles comes to mind. The owner of the Ravens is another. A number of corporations and foundations could do it, too.
It becomes a harder sell, however, when the boat in question is a retired 563-foot Navy destroyer that has a date later this year with Davy Jones' locker.
Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative volunteers have their eyes on the ex-Radford, a vessel mothballed at Aker Philadelphia Shipyard. Their colleagues in New Jersey and Delaware do, too.
They envision the ex-Radford as a new ocean attraction with a new name -- DelJerseyLand -- on the hard sand bottom of the Atlantic, just 26 miles off Ocean City. Sitting in 130 feet of water, it would be the largest warship-to-reef project on the East Coast, a massive condominium for marine life, and a playground for anglers and divers.
Scuttling old warships to create habitat isn't new. Two years ago, the 910-foot aircraft carrier ex-Oriskany was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast to the delight of fishing charter businesses and local tourism boards. On May 15, the ex-Vandenberg, a satellite- and missile-tracking ship, is to be sunk seven miles off the Florida Keys.
The Navy has agreed to make the ex-Radford environmentally safe before its scuttling. Two salvage companies are expected to bid on the project. If all goes well, the value of the internal scrap metal and superstructure will help offset the cost of moving the big warship, leaving about $600,000 to be split among the three states.
"Parternering with Delaware and New Jersey is a huge, huge opportunity for us because [they] have established, well-funded reef programs," said Marty Gary, the point man for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "They know the ins and outs and are doing a lot of the heavy lifting."
The Army Corp of Engineers has given its blessing. The next step requires the governors of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey to send nonbinding letters of interest to the Navy by March 28. That should be a snap as long as the folks in the O'Malley administration aren't asleep at the switch.
But if the three states can't pull the financial trigger, it's likely DelJerseyLand will float down the coast and become Carolinaville or Georgiaburg.
That, says Gary, would be a shame.
