On Friday, January 23, 2004 ,Vone Research Inc. received information of a possible cable drag on the third reef at the north end of John Lloyd State Park and a towing cable and bridle off Commercial Blvd. We notified Broward County and the state of Florida. On January 24 we began searching for damage. After searching 1.12 miles, we located the first sponge damage. This area is marked with a yellow jug and the GPS coordinates are N26 04.300 / W80 05.172 . We then proceeded north where we found multiple cable strikes and sponges sheared off. There was also reef and substrate damage. The northern end of the damage is in 54 feet of water at coordinates N26 04.340 / W80 05.127. However , we did not explore any further south than the yellow buoy.
I was pleased to find that the cables on the reef actually protected the reef by deflecting the tow cable. A lot of the hard coral have been returned their pre-impact positions by the divers that first located this area.
This site will be named Oliver & Frank or O & F, for the men who origanally discovered it.
