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Week-long auction for naming rights to artificial reef start

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pir81

Post subject: Week-long auction for naming rights to artificial reef start

Posted: Nov 08, 2006 - 11:36 PM

Puffer

Joined: Dec 31, 1969
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Week-long auction for naming rights to artificial reef starts
Associated Press
Posted on Wed, Nov. 08, 2006
HeraldToday.com (Sarasota, FL)
KEY WEST, Fla. - A weeklong online auction started Wednesday for naming rights to an artificial reef project organizers hope to establish off the Florida Keys.

The artificial reef is to be created by sinking the retired 524-foot U.S. Air Force missile-tracking ship General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, which monitored NASA space launches from 1963 to 1983.

Since 1984, the ship has been amid other decommissioned vessels at the James River Naval Reserve Fleet in Fort Eustis, Va.

Bidding on the online auction site eBay Inc. begins at $900,000, with a reserve price of $1.3 million, said Joe Weatherby, a project organizer with Artificial Reefs of the Keys.

It's the last piece of a funding puzzle required for the $5.7 million project. ARK has already gathered $3 million, but needs to come up with remaining funds to avoid losing the ship to scrapyard.

"This is for someone who is looking for a legacy," Weatherby said. "It's something for an individual or a company that is permanent and positive for the environment."

The proposed artificial reef is expected to attract marine life, provide an ongoing impact to the tourism-based economy and benefit the underwater environment by taking pressure off natural coral reefs.

On the Net: Artificial Reefs of the Keys: http://www.bigshipwrecks.com