Fishermen hope Air Force won't remove Gulf radio towers that spawned reef-like habitat

Thirty miles off the coast of Naples, far from sight from shore, an old radio tower stands alone in the Gulf of Mexico.

It juts out of the water like a faded Christmas tree, a triangular mesh of metal on top of a concrete stem that leads to the Gulf floor. From its peak, a siren blares out every 20 seconds across the empty expanse of water warning any boats away.

The tower, all but abandoned now, was built in the mid-1980s by the Department of Defense as part of a radio relay system for the Air Force. There are 14 towers in total, from the Panhandle to the Keys, all out of use except for their blaring sirens. Relics of another generation, their paint is faded and covered in bird droppings. Their ladders are rusted through.

Under the water, though, is another story. For 30 years, coral has been growing off the legs of the towers, and schools of countless fish have been surviving. Manta rays sweep the sandy floor, while sea turtles circle the top with barracudas and spade fish. The area is home to hammerheads, mangrove snapper, and goliath grouper large enough to fit a SCUBA diver cleanly in their mouths.

Fishermen found the towers 30 years ago, almost immediately after they were built, appearing out of the blue. But now charter boat captains, spear fishermen, divers and boaters are worried the towers will be taken away.

The Air Force has decommissioned the towers and is deciding what to do with them, whether to take them out or figure out a way to officially turn them into the artificial reefs they have become.

"I don’t know how they could even think about taking them out," said Capt. Blake Borgeson, owner of Paradise Coast Charters, which launches out of Wiggins Pass in North Naples.

“It’s another world down there, like swimming in some giant aquarium," Borgeson said. "Unlike a wreck, you have life all the way up and down the entire water column. So much life.”

The worry is it will cost more money to get permits and go through the artificial reef process than just drag the hunks of metal out of the Gulf.

Representatives of The Air Force Civil Engineer Center, which is responsible for maintaining the towers, did not respond to questions for this story by deadline.

More will be known about the future of the towers in July, when the Air Force puts together its budget for the next fiscal year, said Trip Aukman, director of advocacy for Coastal Conservation Association Florida, a marine habitat and fishing advocacy group based in Tallahassee.

“From what we’ve gathered working with the Air Force and FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) is that the Air Force would like to just take them out,” Aukman said.

“There’s a huge liability just leaving them there. So we know they have to cut them down, but we are going to do whatever we can do to at least get them to reef these in place.”

If the Air Force can’t leave them up and doesn’t have the money to sink them, they should consider lopping off the top of the towers and leaving their legs in place underwater, Aukman said.

“We’re willing to help out with the cost,” he said. “We need to make sure everyone understands what these towers mean for fishing, up and down the coast.”

Capt. Rick Pitts, who owns the Ultimate Getaway charter boat that docks at Fort Myers Beach, was awarded the military contract to take Air Force mechanics out to several of the towers each year to keep the sirens running and make sure the towers are not posing a threat to boaters.

The contract is good through 2020, but that’s no guarantee the Air Force will keep the towers there that long, Pitts said.

“They can cancel the bid any time,” he said.

Each of the towers is an oasis of structure and habitat rising from the vast barren floor of the Gulf, Pitts said.

“It’s the Sahara Desert down there,” Pitts said. “The towers are as good as any artificial reef.”

Pitts has taken clients out to two of the closer towers off Naples and Marco Island and one just north of the Dry Tortugas about 30 times a year for more than 20 years, he said.

“I don’t want to see them go away,” he said. “What would be great is if we could get them out to a private bid. If the Air Force can’t maintain them, maybe somebody else could.”

State agencies are waiting to hear from the Air Force as to whether to start the artificial reef process, said Amanda Nalley, FWC spokeswoman.

“They’re their towers, so it’s their decision,” Nalley said. “If they decide to reef them, they would be working with us and whatever counties are involved to build them.

"We, as the state, don’t create artificial reefs, but we’d look at providing grant funding and advice on placement and water depths.”

About seven months ago, the Air Force held a conference call with representatives of Collier County government, FWC, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said Chris D'Arco, senior environmental specialist for Collier County.

"They got everyone’s input, and the idea was they would develop a draft project master plan with the intent of documenting all the regulatory requirements they would come across," D'Arco said. "We really haven't heard much since then.

"My understanding is that right now the Air Force is not firm on any kind of funding for this.

"We never really got a number as far as a cost estimate.

"I believe that when the complete removal of the towers was discussed, that was seen as possibly the most expensive option."

Bill D’Antuono, head of the Naples Spearfishing League, has started a petition urging the Air Force to turn the towers into artificial reefs. The petition has gathered more than 1,250 signatures.

D’Antuono also is one of the leaders of the Collier County Waterkeeper, a clean-water advocacy group working to add more artificial reefs off Naples.

“It would be a travesty to let these go,” D’Antuono said. “We just went through this big program that cost millions of dollars to build these artificial reefs. Why would we do that just to waste what we already have going?”

D’Antuono said he tries to avoid the “R Tower,” the closest tower to Naples, because it can draw a crowd of boats even 30 miles off shore. But he and Borgeson of Paradise Coast Charter, took spear guns out Wednesday morning and found themselves there alone with the blaring siren.

A sea turtle slowly rose as D’Antuono dove down. He surfaced 30 minutes later with three mangrove snapper and a large red grouper.

“Talk to any fishermen from here to the Keys and they’re going to tell you to fish the towers,” he said.