And that one cleared the fence!!!! Good one sir, good one!!

More reason's why we are in sore need of a like button and / or reputation points.. :P

When they cut them and remove them NOTHING remains as a debris field or reef. Several times I have gone over one they removed a few years ago and still can not even find a hump or dip on mi bottom finders with either of my boats. The area is marked well on my machines. I fished it a lot.

Once the jackets are removed, a boat drags sonar equipment across a designated grid path. After that, a big trawl is drug to collect anything on the bottom. Junk that can not be picked up by net gets a diver to go down and hook on to it. Last year, we had one in East Cameron that kept having the trawl get hung up on and tear. We sent dive crew down to get it and it was an anchor from a WWII ship. I forget how much it weighed, but it was as big as a Z71, plus had 25 tons of chain connected to it. Pretty neat once we got it topside.

Man, I bet somebody got yelled at over losing that anchor!:work:

No Habitat = No Fish. Idle Iron is just stupid policy from there feds. Lay them down in place or in a marked field. Maritime hazard, etc reasons are also BS. The trawlers & other vessels know to stay away from these rigs now. P&A the well and lay the iron down right there. Each state can mark the reefs.

Got the chance to do some fishing with MG and his family. A great family man with some great kiddos. He's a cool dude to talk with (as long as you dont mind a guy that blows your IQ out the water) and his kiddos are a great group and they catch some fish. He's an easy going guy in person. I hope our families paths cross again.

HAHA! Yeah, I fished with MG and, his son. I felt intellectually inferior the whole day! Felt heck, I was!:rotfl::work:

Great couple of guys though!;)