Former Flattop Sunk off Florida for Scuba Diving Buffs

The Oriskany, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, became the largest ship intentionally sunk as an artificial reef on May 17 when it was sunk 22.5 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Fla.

After 25 years of service to the Navy in operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Mediterranean, the Oriskany will now benefit marine life, sport fishing and recreation diving off the coast of the Florida panhandle.

The 888-foot ship took about 37 minutes to sink below the surface after strategically placed explosives were detonated.

The Navy developed an engineered sink plan to place the 32,000 ton ship upright on the ocean floor in a North-South orientation at an existing artificial reef site at a depth of approximately 212 feet, as requested by the State of Florida.

The Navy has been working with the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, Florida´s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Escambia County Marine Resources Division and the local Pensacola area community since 2003 and has conducted several scientific studies that demonstrated that Oriskany would create an environmentally safe artificial reef.