DEFENDER

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Tug towed dry dock gate for scuttling

The 'Defender' towed a dry dock caisson gate out of Newport News recently, which was deployed to the tower reef, an artificial reef just outside the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The gate joined items like subway cars, tugboats and tanks in their final resting place on the ocean bottom. The tower reef is a manmade structure that provides a habitat similar to a natural reef. According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, manmade materials “soon become encrusted and colonized by marine organisms, such as barnacles, soft corals, sponges, shellfish, and various algaes and seaweeds. This provides food and refuge for small baitfish that, in turn, provide food for larger predatory fish. The dry dock caisson gate was donated for that purpose by Newport News Shipbuilding. The massive gate was constructed of double steel walls, and has five decks that measure 96 feet long, 42 feet deep, and 16 feet wide. The VMRC has a detailed diagram of the bottom with coordinates at mrc.virginia.gov/vsrfdf/pdf/tower_reef_grid.pdf. Report with photos: https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/huge-dry-dock-gate-sunk-to-expand-va-artificial-reef/