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page is part of The Buccaneer Website that has been designed for
browsers that are not compatible with frames. Buccaneer Wrecks was responsible for the creation of an artificial reef through the sinking of the MV Dania, this 75m vessel was sunk in an area of sand away from the natural reef in conjunction with the Kenya Wildlife Service. The excercise was a great success and the ship has been colonised by a great diversity of marine life. For a forthcoming project we have teamed up with Lafarge cement factory to produce ‘” Reef Balls”’. These 500 kg round blocks of a specially treated cement are an excellent artificial reef, which will create new diving and snorkelling sites in the region. Once we have final approval from the KWS and then we will begin to cast up to 50 balls.
The History of the MV Dania M.V. Dania was formerly known as M.V. Rodriguez, she was built as a general cargo vessel in Hatlow, Norway in 1965 and was registered in San Lorenzo, Honduras, Central America. In
1985, some twenty years later, her African adventure began plying
the Gulf / East African Trade Routes. In 1993 her name was changed
and she was converted into a livestock carrier, used to convey cattle
between Mozambique, South Africa and Mauritius. M.V. Dania is now underwent preliminary preparations at a private berth in Mombasa, Kenya starting on June 15th 2002. The vessel will required many weeks of intensive stripping, cutting, sealing and cleaning to ensure that she was free of all contaminants and diver-friendly. The Kenya Wildlife Service biologists inspected the vessel upon completion of the preparations and when satisfied authorized the sinking to proceed. The Dania was towed to a designated site outside the natural reef, 1.5km off the shore of Bamburi Beach, where she was scuppered and settled on a sandy bottom in 30 metres of water. It was hoped that M.V. Dania would lie in an East - West line. Once in positioned on the seabed the site was marked with buoys to clearly identify the reef and to facilitate tie-up moorings. An "isolate danger buoy" was positioned over the centre of the vessel and cautionary buoys mark the fore and aft of the reef. The Sinking MV Dania finally slipped below to waves on Sunday the 27th October 2002 at 1305. She landed at 30M perfectly upright and was ready for diving within hours. As can be seen by the pictures, we could scarcely have made a more textbook operation.
Sponsors As with any big project like this, help is required. These are the companies that enabled it all to take place.
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