Explosives and train cars

Wow, I never heard of this. I'd like to find out more info. Most likely this would affect the surf, but it depends on how far offshore, and how deep from the ocean surface. I would suspect this would definitely affect the surf - most likely not in a good way, unless there was some intelligent purpose in contructing the reef condusive for good surf. Is this published anywhere online?

 

check with the surfrider foundation chapter in ocmd. they should have more info on the plan

brasco

 

Back in the day, (up until the early 70's) the national guard used to fly radio controlled small aircraft up and down the coast and fire at them from both the coast and boats. U mostly just find shell casings but somehow a lot of unexploded stuff ended up on the ocean bottom. for the most part they are rusted through and dead,


w/ reagard to the train cars its already been done up in delaware and other places. anything hard on the ocean bottom becomes habitat for plants and fish. its put in deep enough water that has no effect on waves. Putting them in anything shallow enough to affect waves would be a navigational hazard

 

This statement is not true!

The following shows how deep waves travel underneath the ocean surface with relation to the wave period:

The equation for the depth a wave reaches underneath the surface with respect to wave period is:

Depth(ft) = Period*Period * 2.56ft , where period is in seconds.

10 sec period => 256 ft
12 sec period => 369 ft.
14 sec period => 502 ft.
16 sec period => 655 ft.
18 sec period => 829 ft.
20 sec period => 1024 ft

The trains may not be elevating the surface that much, so may not influence the waves that much, but as you can see by the equation above, that any longer period swell will feel the bottom pretty far off the east coast. The continental shelf some 20 miles off the coast has a depth of near 420ft.

 

you're right... saying they wil have "no effect" was wrong. What i meant was that in 30-40 feet of water the waves won't be shoaled (broken) by the reef. Whether such a structure would have any noticable effect on wave heights on the beach is beyond me. There are even potential beneficial effects of offshore reefs if the swell lines are focussed a bit through convex refraction when they pass over the reef and the resulting a-frames increase wave height behind the reef. Plenty of spots in SoCal have higher wave heights than surrounding area where offshore reefs focis swell.

 

good point. this could create a refraction process that could focus swell into particular areas. It could either help or hurt spots. create new ones, destroy old ones... we need more details.

 

Artificial Reef

The train cars will not be dumped into any random area off the beach. They will go to one or more of the areas that have been set aside for artifical reefs. The closest area is Kelly's reef about 1 mile off 28th st, the other reef sites are farther out and to the south. The OC Reef Foundation has dropped everything from concrete pipe, military tanks, to old boats in these areas. Everything that would be hamful to the enviorment is removed. If you have ever dived a wreck, you would see how it transforms an almost lifeless area into a highly populated reef community. This will not have any impact, good or bad on surfing.

 

cool. thanks for the info. I still am not going to sway away from the fact that there could be an impact on the deep water swells. Like South Bethany mentioned there could be a refraction influence which will bend the offshore swells into certain areas.

For any OCMD locals, there is a reason why the 48th street area tends to pick up swells better than other areas and that has to do with the offshore bathymetry focusing the energy into that mid oc area, especially on North swells.

 

I found an old public notice from the Army Corps in 2002 about Kelly's reef and it had a crude map on it and from what I could tell Kelly's reef is about a half mile off Assateague not at 28th.

 

I took a scuba class from the guy that runs Sea Colony aquasports in Severna Park, and i'm pretty sure he had mentioned something about having a hand in creating the reef that's offshore of the Assateague/inlet area (if I remember correctly). His name's John Kiser, he seems to kind of be the "Duke" of scuba diving if thats possible, and he's essentially just a badass dude who loves the water. I'm sure he'd share any knowledge he has of it if you asked him, his email's dive@seacolony.net

 

Kelly's Reef

Kelly's reef is off 28th st. There are several area of artifical reef pyramids and and old apple barge. When the croaker are off the beach you will see the party boats working that area.

 

http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Regulatory/PublicNotice/Worcester/02-62089.pdf
Go down to the map at the bottom, it's not at 28th street.

 

Purnell's Reef

I was wrong, Kelly's reef is just south of little gull and about 3 miles off the north end of Assategue. Purnell's reef is off 28th st.

 

i just looked at that chart.

Its not that deep out there...

At first I was thinking that was what we call the shoals off the Ocean City inlet, but thats much further out. That place might break on a big long period swell (which rarely happens). Not at Kellys Reef, but just north at Little Gull Bank, where the depths go below 20ft.

Any mariners here want to verify? or keep it a secret?

 

Little Gull

There are areas out there as shallow as 15 feet. I was out there fishing on a day with 8-10 ft swells and you could see that it started to line up and get steeper in that area, but it wasnt even close to breaking. It would really have too be huge for it to break out there. I would not want to go through the inlet on a day like that.

 

Ya, i'm thinking if there were ever any Giant swells like they get in the north pacific that place could break, but it just those just dont happen around here.

One of the areas, where my forecast knowledge could be increased is in learning the different bathymetry patterns of different breaks. Most bottom data is available out there, but I believe you have to pay for most hi-res coastal charts. Anyone know any different? I've done the searching before, but I cant remember exactly.

 

charts

find someone with the charts on gps or on paper. most fisherman have these. cant be too hard to find on the internet too.