By Mike Hughes
Writer, Dive News Network
Padre Island is the second longest island in the United States. The north end of the island is home to the Padre Island National Seashore. There is close to 70 miles of hiking trails and beachfront where 380 species of birds migrate yearly and where sea turtle science and recovery has led to the re-introduction of kemp’s ridley, leatherbacks, loggerheads and hawksbill sea turtles. It is also home of the Malaquite Visitor Center where you can find out more about local inhabitants and so much more.
As for recreational activities and the best diving sites in general, the south island area is the ultimate destination for annual diver migrations. I asked a representative of American Diving, a scuba instructor college located in the area, what the top three spots off South Padre Island, (SPI), were. He said that the number one site had to be the Texas Clipper. This 473 ft. long ship was sunk as an artificial reef on November 17, 2007. It currently rests on its port side at 60 to 130 ft. There has been a lot of growth on the wreck in the last five years, and besides all the big ling and snapper, the latest family to move in and take up residence on the ship is a family of stingrays. The ship is so big that you can’t see it all even on a couple of dives. Not only that, but while you are looking at tropical fish on one end of the ship, divers in the middle may be watching dolphins catching bait fish right above them, and at the other end of the ship divers are busy photographing invertebrates and oblivious to the silhouette of a passing whale shark; so no two divers or groups of divers, ever experience a dive on the Texas Clipper quite the same way. This is why diving here has become the number one attraction in town.
Before four million was spent on the cleanup and removal of 700 tons of metal and debris from the ship to ensure it would be creature and diver friendly, the Texas Clipper served as the USTS Queens as an attack transport to carry troops to Iwo Jima and wounded away from the island during WWII. It was also part of the occupation force in Sasebo, Japan. From 1948-58 the ship was converted to a cruise liner as the USS Excambien with the American Export Lines, and carried passengers and cargo to the Mediterranean. In 1965 it was loaned to the Texas Maritime Academy at Texas A&M University in Galveston where it was used for 30 years as a merchant marine training vessel. This explains the big A&M lettering on the sunken ship.
Besides the Texas Clipper, sometimes charters will do a second or third “tons of steel dive” at one of two iron reefs such as the gas rig Little Sara at 105 ft. or Seana’s Rig at 126 ft. Both of these rigs have tons of life on the horizontal beams at 35-65 ft., so whether you want to find damsels, sergeant majors, or octopus, just look around the horizontal beams. Pelagics are known to swim around the rigs on a routine basis: up to and including whale sharks. Los Torres is another well-known oilrig, but at 240 ft. this is a tech dive. Expect to see pelagics such as amberjacks, hammerheads, silky, and white tip sharks here.
Some other (SPI) wrecks you may wish to see include the shimper boats Deep Six, Pat’s wreck, and the Dona Nelly. Deep Six is an 82 ft. long boat at 60 ft. 11 miles from shore where rays, red snapper, and turtles are usually spotted. Pat’s Wreck is an 80 ft. shrimper 22 miles off shore at 138 ft. Dona Nelly has a deck at 85 ft. and descends to135 ft. The Albatross wasn’t a shrimper, but this boat went down 80-105 ft. with machinery cargo and 10,000 lbs. of shrimp.
For other wrecks that are really big, but might take a two day dive trip to explore, you have the (Mustang Island) three 441.6 ft. long liberty ships 18 nm from Port Aransas up north which include the Conrad Weiser, the Rachel Jackson, and the Charles A. Dana. You can visit the three Port Mansfield liberty ships 23 nm from SPI or 15 nm from Port Mansfield which include the Edward W. Scripps, the Joshua Thomas, and the George L. Farely at 96-100 ft., in addition to 9 rigs to reef structures down at 50-60 ft. Tarpon, tigers, black tips, grouper, and cobia are found at these sites.
Last but not least, we have the Texas Underwater Park, which has tugboats, 2 oilrigs, a US navy work barge, and 32 reef balls 65-73 ft. underwater.
As for natural reefs, the Sponge Gardens is a seamount at 150 ft. deep so out of reach for most divers, but 7 Fathom Reef is made up from a series of four distinct rises and at 24-45 ft. This sandstone area 2 miles offshore was an ice age coastal fresh water lake when local waters were 350 ft. lower than they are today. Mammoth, mastodon, and fresh water snails can be found imbedded in the stone substrate. Invertebrates such as tubeworms, sponges, bryozoans, mollusks, and crustaceans now call this place home.
As for shore dives, they say you can find sand dollars in Dolphin Cove, and numerous critters around any of the jetties, but the truth is that the vis can get really low next to shore unless blue waters have moved in next to the coast line. Hence, the visibility is usually better the farther out from shore you go and that’s why dive boats, charter boats, and private boats are so popular here.
Another thing to keep in mind with diving South Padre Island is that you may want to set aside at least a day off from diving, as there are so many other local activities to do. Families love the Schlitterbahn Beach Water Park. It’s a tropical theme park with a variety of splash rides, a lazy river, and white sand beaches. You may also want to take a dolphin tour or visit the Dolphin Research and Sea Life Nature Center. Sea Turtle Inc. Rescues, recovers, and rejuvenates unfortunate sea turtles. You can see the turtles close up and personal, or help with their hatch and release program. South Padre Island has a Birding and Nature Center as well as an Island Equestrian Center; horse riding on the beach anyone? You can even walk on the 1,500 ft. long Laguna Madre Nature Trail boardwalk and name the migratory birds, but don’t try to count them.
As you can see from the list, you could spend a week on the boat and not see all the dive sites, you could spend a week on shore and not see all the land sites, and maybe that’s why, besides the birds and turtles, so many people return here on an annual basis.
You can drive here from Houston like many dive clubs and dive shops do, or you can fly into Brownsville at the BRO International Airport and drive across the Isabella causeway to South Padre Island. Either way, have a great time and great dives. ■
