Spiegel Grove Celebrates 10th Anniversary as Scuba Diving Attraction

Ten years after it was scuttled into the waters of Florida Keys in the United States, local business leaders and scuba divers have celebrated the anniversary of the wreck of the Spiegel Grove with a ceremonial dive.

The 510-foot former U.S Navy landing ship dock became an artificial reef and a popular attraction for scuba diving holidays in 2002 after it was sunk in the waters six miles off Key Largo.

Spiegel Grove was originally designed to carry cargo and craft and the vessel was in operation between 1956 and 1989. It then spent over a decade in the U.S. Navy's "Mothball Fleet" on James River in Virginia and in 2001 it underwent an extensive clean and was moved to Key Largo the following year.

The scuttling did not go ahead as planned after it sank six hours prematurely and rolled over leaving its upside-down bow sticking out above the surface of the ocean.

The vessel was successfully moved by a team three weeks later on 10th June and it soon attracted hundreds of fish and marine creatures who made the wreck their new home.

On 26th June, 2002, the shipwreck was officially opened to both local divers and tourists enjoying scuba diving holidays in Florida and over the past ten years it has attracted thousands of visitors.

"Before the Spiegel Grove was put down on the bottom, basically we had a sandy, flat bottom; with no structure, no complexity no coral on it at all," commented Lad Akins from the Reef Environmental Foundation, who was in charge of a five-year study of the wreck's marine life. "And this 500-plus-foot steel structure has provided incredible relief and complexity for use of marine life."

The ship now sits upright on the ocean floor after it was moved by powerful currents generated by a storm that generated on the east of Cuba. The top deck sits 60 feet below the surface of the ocean and is thriving with fragile corals, invertebrates and over 200 species of fish, making it a popular spot for scuba diving trips.

Florida's Key Largo is one of the most visited scuba diving destinations in the United States and while scuba diving in Florida divers can explore numerous diving sites, shipwrecks, coral gardens and reefs that lie within the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, Everglades National Park, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

"Key Largo is known as the dive capital of the world and the addition of the Spiegel Grove only furthered that name," added Russ Yagel, the chairman of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce board.

"At the time it was sunk it was not looked as a blessing, (however) ironically it resulted in a great deal of international attention that now makes people from around the world dive the Spiegel Grove."